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PRESENTED liV 



1*43 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST 

DELINEATED, IN 

TWO ESSAYS 

ON OUR LORD'S OWN ACCOUNT OF 

HIS PERSON 

AND OF THE NATURE OF 

HIS KINGDOM, 

AND ON 

THE CONSTITUTION, POWERS, AND MINISTRY 

OF 

A CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 

AS APPOINTED BY HIMSELF. 
BY RICHARD WHATELY, D. D. 

ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. 



Ilaca (j)VT£ia tjv ovk iipvTtvacv b Trarfjp jiov b ovpdvios SKpi^wOficreTai, 

Matt, xv.13. 



FROM THE SECOND LONDON EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. 

NEW-YORK: 
WILEY AND PUTNAM, 161 BROADWAY. 

1843. 



•If** 



TRINTED BY WILLIAM OSE0R>? ? 

S8 William-street. 



Gift 
Mrs. Hennen J«*nings 
Aprfl 26. 1933 



TO THE CANDIDATES WHO RECEIVED 

ORDINATION 

AT CHRIST CHUECH, DUBLIN, NOVEMBEE, MDCCCXL. 
TO THE LORD BISHOP OF MEATH, WHOSE 

CONSECRATION 

TOOK PLACE IN THE SAME CHURCH, DECEMBER, MDCCCXL. 

AN© 

TO THE BISHOPS AND GLERGY OF THE PROVINCE OF DUBLIN, 
WHO ATTENDED THE TRIENNIAL 

VISITATION 

HELD IN AUGUST AND SEPTETHBER, MDCCCXLI. 

£f)ts Uolximt, 

CONTAINING THE SUBSTANCE OF THE DISCOURSES DELIVERED 
ON THOSE OCCASIONS, RESPECTIVELY, 

IS INSCRIBED, 

WITH EARNEST WISHES FOR THEIR PRESENT AND ETERNAL WELFARE, 

BY THEIR SINCERE FRIEND AND FELLOW LABOURER, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The following Essays contain the substance 
of some Discourses not originally designed for 
the Press, but which I was strongly urged to 
publish by several of the persons to whom the 
Volume is inscribed. 8 

I have endeavoured to throw the materials 
into a form more suited for private perusal than 
that of the Discourses originally delivered. I 
fear, however, that in consequence of frequent 
interruptions during the preparation of the work 
for the Press, some defects may be found in 
the arrangement and comparative develope- 
ment of the several topics, and other such im- 
perfections in the compositions, which can only 
be effectually guarded against by means of a 
period of unbroken leisure beyond what I can 
ever reasonably expect. 

But whatever may be thought of the Work 
as a Composition, I trust that, in respect of the 
matter of it, the reader will give me credit for 
being incapable of putting forth, on subjects so 

a In the earlier part of the first Essay, I have been much indebt- 
ed to a valuable Work which, for several years, I have been in the 
habit of recommending to divinity-students, — '• Wilson on the In- 
terpretation of the New Testament," [published by Parker, West 
Strand.] In the first edition this notice, though referred to in a 
foot-note to § 6, (as if inserted) was accidentally omitted in this 
place. 

A* 



PREFACE. 



important, any views that have not been care- 
fully considered. 

In fact, among the subjects here treated of 
are some on which I have not only reflected 
much, but have written and published from time 
to time for above twelve years. 

And it may not be impertinent here to re- 
mark, that in respect of some most important 
points now maintained, I may appeal (besides 
the arguments contained in the following pages) 
to the strongest of all external confirmations, 
the testimony of opponents. Not that I have 
ever written in a polemical form, or sought to 
provoke controversy ; but by opponents, I mean, 
those who have maintained, and who still 
maintain, opinions opposite to those I have put 
forth ; but who have never, to the best of my 
knowledge, even attempted any refutation o^ 
the reasons I have adduced. 

For instance, that the introduction into the 
Christian Religion of Sacrifices and Sacrificing 
Priests is utterly at variance with the whole 
System of the Gospel, and destructive of one 
of its most important characteristics ; and, 
again, that the implicit deference due to the 
declarations and precepts of Holy Scripture, 
is due to nothing else, and that it is not humble 
piety, but profane presumption, either to attri- 
bute infallibility to the traditions or decision of 
any uninspired Man or Body of men, (whether 
Church, Council, Fathers, or by whatever other 



PREFACE. 



title designated,) or, still more, to acknowledge 
in these, although fallible, a right to fix absolute- 
ly the interpretation of Scripture, to be blended 
therewith, and to supersede all private judg- 
ment, — these are positions which I have put 
forth, from time to time, for many years past, 
in various forms of expression, and supported 
by a variety of arguments, in several different 
works, some of which have appeared, in more 
than one edition. And though opposite views 
are maintained by many writers of the present 
day, several of them professed members of the 
Church of England, I have never seen even an 
attempted refutation of any of those arguments. 

It cannot be alleged that they are not worth 
noticing : since, whether intrinsically weak or 
strong, the reception they have met with from the 
Public indicates their having had some influence. 

And again, if any one is averse to entering into 
controversy, and especially personal controversy 
(a feeling with which I cordially sympathize,) 
this would not compel him to leave wholly unno- 
ticed all the arguments that can be urged against 
his views. It would be absurd to speak as if there 
were no medium between, on the one hand, enga- 
ging in a controversy, and, on the other hand, 
passing over without any notice at all, every thing 
that ever has been, or may be, urged on the op- 
posite side. Nothing is easier or more common, 
and I should add, nothing more advisable, than 
to notice in general terms the opinions or argu- 



Vlll PREFACE. 



merits opposed to one's own, and without re- 
ference to any particular book or author : as by 
saying, for instance, " Such and such a doc- 
trine has been held ;" — " this or that may be 
alleged ;" — " some persons may object so and 
so," &c. In this way, not only personal con- 
troversy may be avoided, without undue neg- 
lect of what may be said on the opposite side, 
but also the advantage is gained (to the cause 
of truth, I mean) of confining the reader's at- 
tention to the real merits of the case, independ- 
ently of the extraneous circumstances, b which 
ought not to influence the decision. 

It is true, no one should be required to notice 
every minor objection,-— every difficulty relative 
to points of detail, — -that may be alleged against 
any principle or system he is contending for ; 
since there may be even valid objections against 
each of two opposite conclusions. But this 
does not affect the present case ; the arguments 
I am alluding to having relation to fundamental 
principals. Whatever any one may think of 
the soundness of those arguments, no one can 
doubt that, if admitted, they go to prove that 
the system contended against is (not merely 
open to objections, but) radically wrong 
throughout ; based on false assumptions, sup- 
ported by none but utterly fallacious reasoning, 
and leading to the most pernicious consequences. 

b "E£oj tov irpayfiaTos, Avist. Rhet. 
* See Logic, B. iii. § 17. 



PREFACE. IX 

And these arguments, though it is not for me 
to say that they are unanswerable, have cer- 
tainly been hitherto, as far as I know, wholly 
unanswered, even by those who continue to 
advocate opposite conclusions. 

Should it be asked why they do not either 
abandon those conclusions, or else attempt a 
refutation of the reasons urged against them, 
that is evidently not a question for me, but for 
them, to answer. Else, an answer is not un- 
likely to occur to some minds, in the words of 
the homely proverb, "he that's convinced 
against his will, is of his own opinion still." 

It is only, however, in reference to the sub- 
ject-matter itself of the question under discus- 
sion — to the intrinsic soundness of the conclu- 
sions advocated — that the opinions and proce- 
dure of individuals can be worth the attention 
of the general reader. All that I wish to invite 
notice to, is, the confirmation that is afforded to 
the conclusiveness of arguments to which no 
answer is attempted, even by those who con- 
tinue to maintain doctrines at variance with them. 
All that has been said in reference to the po- 
sitions above alluded to (which are among those 
maintained in the second of these Essays) will 
apply equally to some of those maintained in 
the first Essay : for instance, that to attempt the 
propagation or support of Gospel-truth by secu- 
lar force, or by establishing in behalf of Chris- 
tians, as such, a monopoly of civil rights, is 



PREFACE. 



utterly at variance with the true character of 
Christ's Kingdom, and with the teaching and 
practice of Himself and his Apostles ; d and that 
to attribute to them any such design, is to im- 
pugn their character, not merely as inspired 
Messengers from Heaven, but even as sincere 
and upright men. 

These conclusions have been maintained by 
arguments which have been as long before the 
Public e as the others above alluded to, and have 
remained equally unanswered. 

If in these, or in any other points, I am in 
error, I trust I shall be found open to conviction 
whenever my errors shall be pointed out. In 
the mean time, I trust I shall not be thought to 
have been un profitably employed, in endea- 
vouring more fully to elucidate, and to confirm 
by additional arguments, what appear to me to 
be momentous truths, and in developing some 
of the most important of the practical conclu- 
sions which result from them. 

In the present edition a few notes have been 
added in further illustration of the principles 
maintained ; and here and there a sentence has 
been slightly altered in expression, in order to 
guard, as far as lies in myself, against all 
danger of misapprehension. 

d See a very interesting pamphlet on the present condition of the 
Vaudois. (Murray, Albemarle Street.) 

e Particularly in the Essay "On Persecution," (Third Series,) 
and in Appendix E. and F. to the Es6ays "On the Dangers," &c. 
(Fourth Series.) 



CONTENTS 



ESSAY I. 

PAGE 

) 1. Christ's own Account of Himself and of his 

Kingdom, at his two Trials ... 3 

2. His Trial and Condemnation by the Jewish 

Council ..... 6 

3. Jesus, the Son of God, in a peculiar sense . 9 

4. Christ charged with blasphemy, as claiming to 

be the Son of God, in a sense authorizing 
adoration . . . . .11 

5. Proofs that He was so understood . . 15 

6. A Divine Messiah not expected by the Jews 19 

7. Proofs that the sense in which He was under- 

stood, was that which He designed . . 22 

8. His Testimony concerning Himself at his 

Trial, must have been true, . . 24 

9. His Declarations concerning Himself, at his 

Second Trial,— that before Pilate . . 26 

10. Sense in which his Disclaimer of a Kingdom 

of this World, is to be understood . . 31 

11. Impiety of attributing to Him a hidden meaning 37 



:iV CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

12. Spiritual Societies and Secular, not to be con- 

founded ..... 42 

13. Intolerance, a natural accompaniment of In- 

sincerity; Tolerance the fruit of Christian 
Faith and Knowledge . . .48 



ESSAY II. 

1. Christianity designed to be a social Religion 53 

2. Properties of a Community . . .57 

3. Rights divinely conferred on a Christian Com- 

munity ..... 61 

4. Constitution of the Jewish Church . . 63 

5. How the Disciples would understand the com- 

mission given them . . .66 

6. Penalties for Ecclesiastical Offences . 69 

7. Power of the Keys . . . . . . 72 

8. Procedure of the Disciples in conformity with 

their Master's directions . . .74 

9. Christian Churches derived from Synagogues 78 

10. Scanty Records of what relates to Church- 

government, and copious, of moral and doc- 
trinal instructions . . . .83 

11. Remarkable circumstances in the matters of 

detail which they do record . . 85 

12. Internal Evidence of the Gospel resulting from 

the above views . . . .93 

13. Things enjoined, things excluded, and things 

left at large . . . . .95 

14. Christianity a Religion without Sacrifice, 

Altar, Priest, or Temple . . .98 

15. The Christian Church Universal has no one 

Spiritual Head on Earth . . . 103 

16. Importance of Points excluded . . 109 

17. Contrary Errors opposed to the above Principles 111 



CONTENTS* Xltl 

PAGE 

$ 18. Church Ordinances removed from a firm foun- 
dation and placed on one of sand . . 115 

19. The English Reformers chose the true Foun- 

dation ..... 118 

20. Pretended Church-Principles fatal to the 

Christian hopes and privileges, even of their 
advocates ..... 129 

21. Appeal to the practice of the early Churches, 

an argument inaccessible to the great Mass 

of Christians .... 134 

22. Pretended decisions of the Catholic Church 138 

23. Appeals to supposed decisions, &c. of the 

Catholic Church, as superfluous as they are 
unsound ..... 148 

24. The Articles, the Symbol embodying the de- 

liberate decisions of our Church . . 154 

25. Pretended distinction between co-ordinate and 

subordinate tradition . . . 160 

26. Alleged importance of human teaching . 165 

27. Use and abuse of human instruction . . 170 

28. The System of Reserve . . . 173 

29. Unsound reasons brought in aid of sound ones 177 

30. Difficulty of ascertaining unbroken succession 

in the case of individuals . . . 182 

31. Increased Danger of Schism . . 189 

32. Irregular formations of Christian Communities 192 

33. Presumption in favourof the Church to which 

one actually belongs . . . 200 

34. Apprehension of what is called unsettling 

men's minds .... 203 

35. Supposed case neither an impossible one, nor 

useless even if it were . . . 206 

36. Cases of a moral necessity for Separation . 209 

37. Mistakes to be guarded against by reformers 

when compelled to separation . . 212 



XIV CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

§ 38. Certain views seductive to the Feelings and 

Imagination . . . . .218 

39. Case of deposed Bishops and Presbyters . 225 

40. System of traditionists incapable of being sup- 

ported by clear argument . . . 229 

41. Fallacies resorted to on religious subjects . 233 

42. False views of what is Christian Faith and 

Humility . . . . .235 

43. Principles of the Anglican Reformers . 239 



ESSAY I. 



ON 

CHRIST'S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS PERSON, 

AND OF 

THE NATURE OF HIS KINGDOM, 

AS SET FORTH AT HIS TWO TRIALS. 



Odds. £i5o£$?/ 40A02 ^tu oro^ar* cc-biov. 



ESSAY I 



Christ's 
own ac- 
count of 



§ 1. To any one who is convinced of 
the divine origin of the Christian Re- Himseifand 
ligion, — who is satisfied that what is dom, 32" 
called in Scripture " the Kingdom of quiry 
Heaven" does really deserve that title, — and 
who is inquiring into the personal character of 
its Founder, and into the nature of that King- 
dom which He proclaimed and established, the 
most obvious and natural course would seem 
to be, to appeal, in the first instance, to that 
Founder Himself, and to consider what account 
He gave of his own character and that of his 
kingdom. For to believe Him sent from God, 
is to believe Him incapable of either deceiving 
or being deceived, as to these points. He must 
have understood both his own personal nature, 
and the principles of the religion He was 
divinely commissioned to introduce. Having 
1 



4 Christ's Two Trials. [Essay I. 

a full reliance therefore both on his unerring 
knowledge, and his perfect veracity, our first 
inquiry should be, as I have said (without any 
disparagement of other sources of instruction) 
into the accounts He gave of Himself and his 
religion ; both in the various discourses which 
He delivered and declarations which He made, 
on sundry occasions, and, most especially, on 
the great and final occasion of his being tried 
and condemned to death. 

Sic!! tried We collect fr° m tne sacred histori- 
ans that He underwent two trials, before 
two distinct tribunals, and on charges totally 
different; that on the one occasion He was found 
guilty, and on the other, acquitted ; and that 
ultimately He was put to death under the one 
Authority in compliance with the condemna- 
tion which had been pronounced by the other. 
Trial before He was tried first before the San- 
drim first, hedrim, (the Jewish Council) " for blas- 

andthenbe- K ' 

fore Pilate, phemy," and pronounced " guilty of 
death.'' Before the Roman governor, Pilate, 
(and probably before Herod also) He w T as tried 
for. rebellion, in setting up pretensions subver- 
sive of the existing Government ; and was pro- 
nounced not guilty. The Jewish rulers had the 
will, but not the power, to inflict capital punish- 
ment on Him ; Pilate had the power, and not 
the will. But though he " found no fault in 
Him," he was ultimately prevailed on by the 



$ 1.] Christ's Two Trials. 5 

Jews to inflict their sentence of death. " We* 
have a law," they urged, " and by our law He 
ought to die, because He made Himself the Son 
of God." 

Of this most interesting and important portion 
of the sacred narrative, many persons, I believe, 
have a somewhat indistinct and confused notion; 
partly from the brevity, scantiness, and indeed 
incompleteness, of each of the four narratives, 
when taken alone ; each evangelist recording, 
it may be supposed, such circumstances, as he 
was the most struck with, and had seen or 
heard the most of 1 : and partly, again, from the 
commonly prevailing practice of reading the 
Scripture-histories irregularly, and in detached 
fragments, taken indiscriminately and without 
any fixed object, out of different books. b 

This indistinctness a reader of ordinary 
intelligence may I think very easily clear away, 
by attentively studying and comparing together 
all the four accounts that have come down 
to us : and he will then find that this portion 
of the history so examined, will throw great 

a 'H/uf s is expressed in the original. 

b The whole of the New Testament is read in this irregular 
mode, in the Second Lessons appointed .in our Service ; as these 
are appointed in reference to the day of the month only ; and it is 
consequently a matter of chance which of them shall fall on Sun- 
day. This is one of the imperfections which a Church-government, 
if we had one, would not fail to remedy. See Appendix to the Se- 
cond Essay. 



6 Christ's Condemnation. [Essay I. 

light on some of the most important points of 
Gospel truth ; — -on those two great questions 
especially which were alluded to in the out- 
set, as to the fundamental character of "the 
kingdom of Heaven," and the person of its 
Founder. 

jRfijSS § 2. When the Jewish Rulers and 
infl?c«on f of People were clamorously demanding 
SlentT the death of Jesus under sentence of 
the Roman Authorities, and Pilate in answer 
declared, that before his — the Roman — tribunal, 
no crime had been proved, saying, " Take ye 
Him and judge Him according to your law," 
his intention evidently was that no heavier 
penalty should be inflicted than the scourging 
which was the utmost that the Jewish Au- 
thorities were permitted to inflict. But they 
replied that the crime of which they had con- 
victed Him, was, by their law, capital, while 
yet they were restricted by the Romans from 
inflicting capital punishment ;. (" it is not lawful 
for us to put any man to death") on which 
ground accordingly they called on the Governor 
to execute the capital sentence of their Court. 
Pilate's Their clamours prevailed, through 
yielding. Pilate's apprehension of a tumult, c and 

c It seems to have been not unusual for the Roman Governors 
of Provinces to endeavour thus to prevent, or mitigate, or cut short, 
any tumult not directed against the Roman power itself, by yield- 



§ 2.] by the Jewish Council. 7 

of himself incurring suspicions of disloyalty 
towards the Emperor ; which they had en- 
deavoured to awaken by crying out that " if 
he let this man go, he was not Caesar's friend : 
whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh 
against Caesar." But this was only brought 
forward as a plea to^influence Pilate. The trial 
before the Jewish Council had nothing to do 
with the Roman Emperor, but was for " blas- 
pherrry," because " He made Himself the Son 
of God." 

It is important, therefore, to in- of M t e b a e ni ef! 
quire, — since this phrase may conceiv- sonofGod 
ably bear more than one meaning, — in w 7 hat 
sense it was understood by those who founded 
on it the sentence of death. 

In a certain sense all mankind may God , g Elect 
be called children of God. d In a more caiiSsons. 
especial manner, — in a higher sense, — those 
are often called his children whom He has 
from time to time chosen to be his " peculiar 

ing to the wishes of the populace, however unreasonable, or conni- 
ving at their disorders. A sort of compromise was thus made with 
the most turbulent and violent among them ; who, provided they 
made no attempt to throw off the yoke of a foreign Power, were per- 
mitted to sacrifice a fellow-citizen to their lawless fury. Thus 
Gallio at Corinth left the rioters to settle their own disputes as they 
would ; (Acts xviii.) and the magistrates at Philippi readily and 
spontaneously gratified the populace by seconding and sanctioning 
their unjust violence. Pilate on this occasion did so, tardily and 
reluctantly. 

d (Acts xvii.) .... " for we are also his children." 
1* 



8 Christ's Condemnation. [Essay h 

People,"— to have his will revealed to them? 
and his offers of especial favour set before 
them. Such were the Israelites of old (to whom 
the title of Son is accordingly assigned by the 
Lord himself, Exod. iv. 22,) as being the chosen 
or " Elect" People of God, called from among 
all the nations of the world to receive direct 
communications, and especial blessings from 
their Heavenly Father. And the like privilege 
of peculiar H Scnship," (only in a far higher 
degree,) was extended afterwards to all na- 
tions who should embrace the Gospel ; " who 
aforetime" (says the Apostle Peter) ''were not 
a People, but now are the People of God." 
And Paul uses like expressions continually in 
addressing his converts, whether they walked 
worthy of their high calling or not. 

Yet again, still more especially, those who do 
avail themselves of the privileges offered to 
them, and " walk as Children of the light," are 
spoken of as, in another and a superior way, 
the " Sons" of Him whom they love and sub- 
mit to as a Father : " as many," says Paul, 
" as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the 
Sons of God." 

Prophets Those Patriarchs, and Prophets 
supematu- again, to whom of old God revealed 

rally en- ° 

dowed. Himself immediately, and made them 
the means of communication between Himself 
and other men, — his messengers to his Peo- 



$ 3.] Christ the Son of God. 9 

pie, — and endowed with miraculous powers 
as the credentials of a heavenly embassy, — to 
such men as having a peculiar kind of divine 
presence with them, we might conceive the title 
of Children of God to be applicable in a diffe- 
rent sense, as distinguishing them from unin- 
spired men. 

Now it is a most important practical question 
whether Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our 
faith, — He to whom we are accustomed empha- 
tically to apply the title of " the Son of God," — 
was so designated, in the Angel's first announce- 
ment, and on so many occasions afterwards, 
merely as being an inspired messenger from 
heaven, or in some different and higher sense ; 
and what that higher sense is. 

§ 3. And first, that Jesus is spoken Jesus th 
of in Scripture as the Son of God, in f n on a °^ c ^ 
some different sense from any other harsense - 
person, is evident at once from the very circum- 
stance of his being styled " the only-begotten 
Son ;" which title is particularly dwelt on when 
He is speaking of Himself, (John iii.) This is a 
further stage in the revelation given ; for the 
Angel had not told Mary that He should be 
" the Son of God," (though it is so rendered in 
our version) but only "a Son of God," vibg Oeov. 

I need not multiply the citations of passages 
of which so many must be familar to every one 



10 Christ the Son of God. [Essay I. 

Revelations even tolerably well-read in the New- 
made on the * . 
occasion of 1 estament. But there is one that is 

the Trans- 
figuration, peculiarly worthy of attention, on ac- 
count of the care which divine Providence then 
displayed in guarding the disciples against the 
mistake of supposing Jesus to be merely one — 
though the most eminent one — of the Prophets. 
In the transfiguration " on the Mount," three 
favoured Apostles beheld their Master sur- 
rounded with that dazzling supernatural light 
which had always been to the Israelites the 
sign of a divine manifestation, and which we 
find so often mentioned in the Old Testament 
as the Glory of the Lord — the Shechinah^ — 
which appeared on Mount Sinai, — on the Ta- 
bernacle in theWilderness,-— in Solomon's Tem- 
ple, &c. : and they beheld at the same time, in 
company with Him, two persons, each of 
whom had been seen in their lifetime accom- 
panied by this outward mark of supernatural 
light ; Moses, their great lawgiver, whose "face 
shone when he came down from Mount Sinai, 
so that the Israelites could not fix their eyes on 
it, and Elias (Elijah), their most illustrious 
Prophet, who was seen borne away from the 
earth in that Shechinah appearing as a "chariot 
and horses of fire :" and now, these same two 
persons were seen along with Jesus. It might 
naturally have occurred to the three disciples 
(perhaps some such idea was indicated by the 



{ 4.] Christ charged ivith Blasphemy. 11 

incoherent words which dropped from them) — 
the thought might have occurred to them, — were 
Moses and Elias also Emmanuels? — were all 
three, manifestations of " God dwelling with 
his People ?" and was Jesus merely the great- 
est of the three ? To correct, as it should seem, 
any such notion, it was solemnly announced to 
them that their Master was a Being of a dif- 
ferent character from the others : " there came 
a voice out of the cloud, saying,. This is my be- 
loved Son : hear Him." And on two other oc- 
casions we read of the same signs being given. 

§ 4. No one can doubt then, that whether 
those who believed in Jesus at all, the sou of 

God iu a 

must have believed Him to be the Son sense au- 
thorizing 

of God in a far different and superior adoration, 
sense from that in which any other could be so 
called. But what was the sense, it may be 
asked, in which they did understand the title ? 
Did the people of that time and country un- 
derstand that God was with Him, not only in 
some such way as He never was with any other 
man, but so as to permit and require divine wor- 
ship to be addressed to God in Christ? Man} r 
passages by which this tenet is supported are 
commonly cited from the Evangelists and 
Apostles ; but I wish at present to confine my- 
self to the expression " the Son of God," and 



12 Christ charged with Blasphemy. [Essay I. 

to inquire in what sense that was understood 

at the time. 

Metaphysi- Waiving then all abstruse disquisi- 

cal disqui- . 1 

sitions on tion on the notions conveyed by such 

abstruse / J 

scholastic terms as " consubstantiality," — " per- 

terms, un- m •* *■ 

necessary, sonality," — " hypostatic-union," — " e- 
ternal filiation," and the like, (oftener I conceive 
debated about with eagerness than clearly un- 
derstood,) let us confine ourselves to such views 
as we may presume the Apostles to have laid 
before the converts they were instructing ; who 
were most of them plain unlearned persons, 
to whom such abstruse disquisitions as I have 
been alluding to, must have been utterly unin- 
telligible ; but who, nevertheless, were called 
on, — all of them, of whatever age, sex, station, 
and degree of intellectual education, — to re- 
ceive the Gospel, and to believe, and feel, and 
act, as that Gospel enjoined. 

There is one great practical point clearly in- 
telligible to all, thus far, at least, that they 
can understand what the question is that is un- 
der discussion, and which it is, and ever must 
have been, needful to bring before all Chris- 
tians without exception : viz. whether there is 
that divine character in the Lord Jesus which 
entitles Him to our adoration: — whether He is 
the Son of God in such a sense as to authorize 
those who will worship none but the one God, 



.$ 4.] Christ charged with Blasphemy. 13 

to worship Jesus Christ; so that "all men e 
should honour the Son even as they honour the 
Father." 

Now there is a maxim relative to the wor J s h t r o S £ B 
right interpretation of any passage of gense^ 
Scripture, so obvious when stated, that fhTume. at 
it seems strange it should be so often over- 
looked ; viz. to consider in what sense the words 
were understood by the generality of the persons they 
were addressed to ; and to keep in mind that the 
presumption is in favour of that, as the true 
sense, unless reasons to the contrary shall ap- 
pear. 

Some are accustomed to consider, what sense 
such and such words can be brought to bear; 
or how we should be most naturally inclined 
to understand them : but it is evident that 
the point we have to consider — if we would un- 
derstand aright what it is that God did de- 
sign to reveal, — is, the sense (as far as we can 
ascertain it) which the very hearers of Christ 
and his Apostles did actually attach to their 
words. For we may be sure that if this was, 
in any case, a mistaken sense, a correction of 
the mistake (if it relate to any important prac- 
tical point) will be found in some part of the Sa- 
cred Writings. 

However strange therefore it may seem to 
any one that the phrase " Son of God" should 

e John v. 23. 



14 Christ charged with Blasphemy. [Essay I. 

have been so understood as it was at the time, 
and however capable of another sense it may 
appear to us, still, the sense which Jesus and 
his Apostles meant to convey, must have been 
that, — whatever it was, — in which they knew 
that their hearers understood them. 

And what this meaning was, may I think be 
settled even by the testimony of his adversaries 
alone, as to the sense in which they understood 
Him. They charged Him, not only on his trial, 
but on many other occasions also, with " blas- 
phemy," as " making Himself God," — " mak- 
ing Himself equal with God ;" and threatened 
to " stone Him," according to the law of Moses 
against blasphemers ; understanding blasphe- 
my to comprehend the crime of enticing the 
People to worship any besides the one true God, 
Jehovah/ 

wo^dhave Now if they had misunderstood his 
hearts hls words, and had supposed his language 
Sake as to imply a claim to such divine honour 

to^hismean- &g j^ q ^ ^ rea jjy mean to claim, We 

may be sure that any one— I do not say merely, 
any inspired messenger from heaven, but — -any 
man of common integrity, would at once have 
disavowed the imputation, and explained his 
real meaning. If any Christian ministers, 
in these days, or at any time, were to have used 
some expression which they found was under- 

f See Deut. xiii. 



{ 5.] Ghri&'s Claim, of Sonship. 15 

stood, —either by friends or foes, — as implying 
a -claim to divine worship, what would they not 
deserve, if they did not hasten to disclaim such 
a meaning ? 

And much more would this be re- JJ^foJe- 
quisite in the case of a person who fore- ETfoiiow- 
saw (as Jesus must have done) that p„ s y mm d 
his followers would regard Him as di- nours! 
vine, — would Worship Him — if He did not ex- 
pressly warn them against it. Such a one 
would be doubly bound to make such explana- 
tions and such disavowals as should effectually 
guard his disciples against falling into the 
error — through any thing said or done by Him- 
self — of paying adoration to a Being not di- 
vine : even as the Apostle Peter warns the 
Centurion Cornelius against the adoration 
which he suspected that Cornelius designed to 
offer him ; saying, " Stand up, I myself also am 
a man." Jesus of course would have taken 
care to give a like warning, if He had been 
conscious of not having a claim to be considered 
as divine, and had at the same time been aware 
that the title of Son of God would be under- 
stood as implying that claim. 

That the title was so understood, is the point 
to which I am now calling the reader's attention. 

§ 5. On One occasion, when he had Jesus un- 
healed a cripple on the Sabbath-day, claim a <u- 

A L m * vine cha- 

-and had commanded him immediately racter - 
2 



16 Sense in which Christ's Claim [Essay I. 

to " take up his bed" (which was a work pro- 
hibited by the Jewish law) He vindicates Him- 
self against his opponents by saying " My Fa- 
ther worketh hitherto,^ and I work ; or, as it 
might be rendered more clearly, according to 
our modern usage, " My Father has been work- 
ing up to this time ;" (that is, ever since the 
creation, the operations of God have been going 
on throughout the Universe, on all days alike ;) 
" and I work ;" I claim the right to perform, 
and to authorize others to perform, whatever 
and whenever I see fit. b " Therefore the Jews" 
(says the Evangelist) " sought the more to kill 
Him, because He not only had broken the Sab- 
bath, but said also that God was his [proper] 
Father ; making himself equal with God"' 1 

On another occasion (John x. 33) when He 
had said "I and the Father are one," the Jews 
were about to stone Him for blasphemy, " be- 
cause (said the}') thou being a man makest thy- 
Defence of self God." He defend s Himself by 

Jesus when .. ... p 1 • n • 

charged alleging a passage ot their bcnpture in 
phemy by which the title of " God" is applied to 

the popu- * L 

lace. those, " to whom the word of God 

h I have treated moiv fully on this point, in an Essay entitled 
" Thoughts on the Sabbath." 

* Our version, it is important to observe, does not give the full 
force of the passage as it stands in the Original. It should be 
rendered, " that God was his own proper (or peculiar) Father" 
(itaHpa Uiov). This it seems was the sense in which (according to 
the Evangelist) He was understood by his hearers to call God his 
Father, and'Himself " the Son of God.' —See Wilson on the New 
1 estament, referred to in the Preface* 



$ 5.] of Sonship was understood. 17 

came ;" implying however at the same time a 
distinction between Himself and those persons, 
and his own superiority to them : " Say ye of 
Him" (He doth not say " to whom the word of 
God came" — but) " whom the Father hath 
anointed and sent into the world, thou blasphe- 
mest, because I said I am the Son of God ?" 
This however did not necessarily imply any 
thing more than superiority, and divine mission ; 
and accordingly we find the Jews enduring it; but 
when He goes on to say " that ye may know 
and believe that the Father is in me, and I in 
Hi?n" we find them immediately seeking again 
to lay hands on Him ; and He withdraws from 
them. 

But the most important record by far His defence 

r . J . before the 

in respect of the point now before us is council, 
that which I originally proposed to notice, — the 
account of our Lord's trial and condemnation 
before the Jewish Council. In order to have a 
clear view of this portion of the history, it is 
necessary to keep in mind, that when He was 
tried before the Roman Governor, it was (as I 
observed at the beginning) not for the same 
crime he was charged with before the Council 
of the Jews ; but for seditious and treasonable 
designs against the Roman Emperor : " We 
found this fellow perverting the nation and for- 
bidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that He 
Himself is Christ a King." " Whosoever ma- 
keth himself a King, speaketh against Caesar." 



18 Christ's Claim of SonsJiip. [Essay 1, 

Now I need hardly remark that this was no 
crime under the law of Moses ; and would in 
fact have been a merit in the sight of most of 
the Jews. But what He was charged with 
before them, was blasphemy, according to the 
Law of Moses ; k and of this they pronounced 
Him guilty, and sentenced Him to death ■; but 
not having power to inflict capital punishment, 
they prevailed on Pilate, who had acquitted 
Him of the charge of treason, to inflict their 
sentence : " We have a law, and by our law 
He ought to die, because He made Himself the 
Son of God." 
Accounts of In order to understand clearly the 

the trial, in . . - , . r T , 

the four trial and condemnation ot our -Lord, 
be com- before the Jewish Council (which is in 

pared to- 
gether, many respects a most important part 

of Sacred History) we should study, as I have 
said, the accounts given of it by all four of the 
Evangelists. Each relates such circumstances 
as most struck bis own mind ; where one is 
abridged, another is more diffuse ; each omits 
some things that are noticed by another ; but 
no one can be supposed to have recorded any 
thing that did not occur. All the four, there- 
fore, should be compared together* in order to 
obtain a clear view of the transaction. 
Jicted c °on ft seems to have been divinely ap- 
umoTy. 168 " pointed that Jesus should be convicted 
on no testimony but his own; perhaps in order 

k See Deut. xiii. Z, 



§ 6.] A divine Messiah not expected by the Jews. 19 

to fulfil the more emphatically his declaration 
" No man taketh away my life, but I lay it down 
of myself." For the witnesses brought forward 
to misrepresent and distort his saying "Destroy 
this temple," into " I will destroy," could not 
make their evidence agree. 

The High Priest then endeavoured, by exa- 
mining Jesus Himself, to draw from Him an 
acknowledgment of his supposed guilt. Two ques . 
He and the others appear to have asked before the 

TT . . i • i • i Council. 

Him two questions ; which in the more 
abridged narrative of Matthew and Mark, are 
compressed into one sentence ; but which Luke 
has given distinctly as two. After having 
asked Him " Art thou the Christ?" they proceed 
to ask further " Art thoiTthen the Son of God?" 1 
and as soon as He had answered this last ques- 
tion in the affirmative (according to the Hebrew 
idiom " Ye say," " Thou hast said") imme- 
diately "the High Priest rent his clothes," say- 
ing, "He hath spoken blasphemy: ye have 
heard the blasphemy ; what need we any fur- 
ther witnesses I for we ourselves have heard of 
his own mouth." 



§ 6. Some readers, I believe, from Jesus not 

r -.-. , . , . condemned 

not carefully studying and comparing for profess- 
together the accounts of the different th ° G Christ - 
Evangelists, are apt to take for granted that the 

1 See John xx. 31. 
2* 



20 A divine Messiah not expected' by the Jews. [Essay! 

crime for which our Lord was condemned, was 
that of falsely pretending to be the Messiah or 
Christ. But whatever the Jews may have 
thought of that crime, they certainly could not 
have found it mentioned, and death denounced 
against it, in the Law of Moses. It could, at 
any rate, have been no crime, unless proved to 
be a false pretension ; which was not even at- 
tempted. Nor could they have brought that 
offence (even if proved) under the head of blas- 
phemy ; unless they had been accustomed to expect 
the Messiah as a divine person. Then, indeed, 
the claim of being the Messiah, and the claim 
of divine honour, would have amounted to the 
Jahnofex- same thing. But so far were they from 
?h e e Ct je d w S b to having this expectation that (not to 
person! vme multiply proofs) they were completely 
at a loss to answer our Lord's question, how 
David, if the Christ were to be David's son, 
could speak of Him as a divine Being under 
the title of Lord. " If David then call Him 
Lord, how is He his son," is a question 
which they would have answered without 
a moment's hesitation, if they had expected 
that the Christ should be, though the Son of 
David after the flesh and as a human Being, 
yet, the Son of God in such a sense as to make 
him a Divine Being also. 

Whatever good reasons then they might have 
found in prophecy for such expectation, it seems, 
plain that they had it not. 



§ &.] A divine Messiah not expected by; the Jew 3^ 21 

And the same I believe is the case, generally 
speaking, with the Jews of the present da} T . m 
A learned modern Jew, who has expressly 
written that Jesus " falsely demanded faith in 
Himself as the true God of Israel," adds that 
"if a prophet, or even the Messiah Himself, had 
offered proof of his divine mission by miracles, 
but claimed divinity, he ought to be stoned to 
death ;" conformably i. e. to the command in 
Deut. xiii. And the only Jew with whom I 
ever conversed on the subject appeared to hold 
the same doctrine ; though he was at a loss 
when I asked him to reconcile it with the ap- 
plication of the title of Emmanuel. 

The Jewish Council then could not, Pretensions 

,-. . T , of Jesus to 

it appears, capitailv convict our Lord, be the 

i i- r i i •ii • Christ not 

merely tor professing to be the Christ, attempted 

i i r i i i .. •' to be dis- 

even though talseJy : and accordingly proved. 
we may observe that they did not even seek for 
any proof that his pretension was false. But 
as soon as He acknowledged Himself to be- the 
" Son of the living God," they immediately pro- 
nounced Him " guilty of death" for blasphemy ; 
i. e. as seeking to lead the People (Deut. xiii.) 
to pay divine honour to another besides the true 
God. They convict Him on his own testimony 
(having "heard of his own mouth") of the 

m See Wilson on the New Testament, above referred to, 



22 Sense in which Christ [Essay I. 

crime which they afterwards describe to Pilate. 
" We have a law, and by our law He ought 
to die, because He made Himself the Son of 
God." 

Jesus was § 7. No candid reader then can 
derstood as doubt, I think, that the Jews under- 

claiming to 

be divine stood Him to claim by that title a divine 
character. And He Himself must have known 
that they so understood Him. As little can it 
be doubted therefore that they must have rightly 
understood Him. For if He — condemned as 
He was on the evidence of his own words — 
had known that those words were understood 
differently from his real meaning, and yet had 
not corrected the mistake, He would have been 
Himself bearing false witness against Himself ; 
since no one can suppose it makes any differ- 
ence in point of veracity, whether a man says 
that which is untrue in every sense, or that which, 
though in a certain sense true, yet is false in the 
sense in which he knows it to be understood. 
It is a mere waste of labour and learning and in- 
genuity to inquire what meaning such and such an 
expression is capable of bearing, in a case where 
we know, as we do here, what was the sense 
which was actually conveyed by it, to the hear- 
ers, and which the speaker must have been 
aware it did convey to them. 



f 7.]' meant to be understood. 23 

Jesus did therefore acknowledge the j es ^ he wls 
fact alleged against Him ; viz : that of jUSJPjoE 
claiming to be the Son of God in such epeu.?Jon 
a sense as to incur the penalty (sup po- ornatbSSg 
sing that claim unwarranted) of death person, 
for blaspheming, according to the law respect- 
ing those who should entice Israel to worship 
any other than the one true God. The whole 
question therefore of his being rightly or wrong- 
fully condemned, turns on the justness of that 
claim : — on his actually having, or not having, 
that divine character which the Jews under- 
stood Him to assume. For if He were not 
such, and yet called Himself the Son of God, 
knowing in what sense they understood the 
title, I really am at a loss to see on what ground 
we can find fault with the sentence they pro- 
nounced. 

It does appear to me therefore — I say this 
without presuming to judge those who think 
differently, but to me it appears — that the whole 
question of Christ's divine mission, and conse- 
quently of the truth of Christianity, turns on the 
claim which He so plainly appears to have 
made to divine honour for Himself. 

I am not one of those indeed who pro- ^J'^ch- 
fess to understand and explain why it have Uld puf 
was necessary for man's salvation that cw* false 
God should have visited his People precisely in 
the way He did. On such points* as I dare not 



24 Christ's Witness of Himself [Essay I. 

believe less, so I pretend not to understand 
more, than He has expressly revealed. If I had 
been taught in Scripture that God had thought 
fit to saye the world, through the agency of 
some Angel, or some great Prophet, not posses- 
sing in himself a divine character, I could not 
have presumed to maintain the impossibility of 
that. But this does strike me as utterly impos- 
sible ; that a heaven-sent messenger — the Sa- 
viour of the world, — should be a person who 
claimed a divine character that did not belong 
to Him ; and who thus gave rise to, and per- 
mitted, and encouraged, a system of idolatry. 
This is an idea so revolting to all my notions of 
divine purity, and indeed of common morality, 
that I could never bring myself to receive as a 
divine revelation any religious system that con- 
tained it* 

AH the difficulties on the opposite side — and 
I do not deny that every religious persuasion has 
its difficulties — are as nothing in comparison of 
the difficulty of believing that Jesus (suppos- 
ing Him neither an impostor nor a madman) 
could have made the declaration he did make 
at his trial, if He were conscious of having no 
just claim to divine honour. 



Deciara- § 8. And the conclusion to which we 

tions of 

Jesus at his are thus led> arises (it should be ob- 

trial, alone 

sufficient, served) out of the mere consideration of 



§ 8.] must be true. 25 

the title "Son of God," or "only-begotten Son 
of God," as applied to Jesus Christ ; without tak- 
ing into account any of the confirmations of the 
same conclusion (and there are very many) which 
may be drawn from other parts of the Sacred 
Writings, both of the Evangelists and Apostles 
— from many things that were said, and that 
were done, both by our Lord and by his Apos^ 
ties. 

There is indeed no one of these their ™JJE 
recorded actions and expressions that {Sf decile 
may not be explained away by an ingeni- Christ °Ld 
ous critic, who should set himself to do u e e s . Apos " 
so, and who should proceed like a legal advo^ 
cate, examining every possible sense in which 
some law or precedent that makes against his 
client, may be interpreted. But again, there 
is hardly one of these passages which can be 
thus explained away without violating the maxim 
above laid down ; viz. that we should consider, 
not any interpretation whatever that such and 
such words can bear, but — what notion they con^ 
veyed, and must have been known to convey, to 
the hearers, at thetime. n For if this were a mis- 
taken notion, — an untrue sense, — it follows in- 
evitably that Christ and his Apostles must have 
been teachers of falsehood, even though their 
words should be capable of a different and true 
signification. 

n See Sermon on the " Name Emmanuel." 



28 Declarations before Pilate. [Essay !• 

^mpossibi- Unless, therefore, we conceive them 
Evangelists capable of knowingly promoting idola- 
ties having try, — unless we can consider Jesus 

encouraged m 

idolatry. Himself as either an insane fanatic, or 
a deliberate impostor, — we must assign to Him, 
the " Author and Finisher of our Faith," the 
" only-begotten Son of God-," who is " one with 
the Father," that divine character which He 
and his Apostles so distinctly claimed for Him ; 
and acknowledge that God truly " was in Christ, 
reconciling the World unto Himself." 



Declara- 
tions before 



§ 9. Not less important, I conceive, 
fnterpreted are tne lessons to be drawn from the 
principled second trial, — that before Pilate, — to 
which our Lord was subjected ; provided this 
portion also of the sacred narrative be studied 
on the principle already laid down ; that of in- 
terpreting his declarations with reference to 
the meaning they were meant to convey at the 
time, and to the very persons He was address- 
ing. 

The Jewish Council, having found Jesus 
guilty of a capital crime, and being not per- 
mitted, under the Roman laws, to inflict capi- 
tal punishment (for the stoning of Stephen ap- 
pears to have been an irregular and tumultuous 
outbreak of popular fury), immediately bring 
him before Pilate on a new and perfectly dif- 

ovk e^etxnv. 



J 9.] Declarations before Pilate. 27 

ferent charge. *' The whole multitude of them 
arose and led Him unto Pilate : and they be- 
gan to accuse Him, saying, We found this fel- 
low perverting the nation, and forbidding to 
give tribute to Caesar, saying that He Himself 
is Christ, a King." For the crime of which He 
had been convicted before them, that of blas- 
phemy, in seeking to draw aside the Jews to 
the worship of another besides the Lord Jeho- 
vah, though a capital crime under the Mosaic 
law, was none at all in the court of the Roman 
Governor ; and again, the crime alleged in this 
latter court, treason against the Roman emperor, 
was no crime at all under the law of Moses. 

Now, in studying the circumstances of this 
second trial, we ought, as has been above ob- 
served, to proceed by the same rule of inter- 
pretation as in respect of the former trial ; viz. 
to understand our Lord's expressions, not in 
any sense whatever that they can be brought 
to bear, nor, necessarily, in the sense which to 
us may seem the most suitable, but in the sense, 
as far as we can ascertain it, in which He must 
have known that He was understood at the time. 

When then He was charged before Defence of 
Pilate with " speaking against Caesar" against the 
and " making Himself a King," how treason. 
does He defend Himself? As on a former oc- 
casion, when his adversaries had tried to make 
him commit the offence with which they now 
3 



28 Declarations before Pilate. [Essay L 

charged Him, of interfering with the secular 
government of Caesar, He, so far from "for- 
bidding to give tribute," drew the line between 
secular and spiritual government, saying, "Ren- 
der unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, 
and unto God the things which be God's," 
so, now, before Pilate, He asserts his claim to 
be a King, but declares that "his kingdom is 
not of this world," and that, accordingly, his 
servants were not allowed to fight for Him ; 
and He further describes his kingly office to 
consist in " bearing witness of the truth." 
" Every one that is of the truth," said He, " hear- 
eth (i. e. obeyeth) my voice." p 



P He came to establish a Kingdom of Truth : that is, not a king- 
dom whose subjects should embrace on compulsion what is in itself 
true, and consequently should be adherents of truth by accident; 
but a kingdom whose subjects should have been admitted as such 
in consequence of their being " of the truth;" that is, men honestly 
disposed to embrace and " obey the truth" whatever it might be, that 
God should reveal: agreeably to what our Lord has elsewhere de- 
clared, that " if any man will do (QeAa, is willing to do) the will of 
my Father, he shall know the doctrine, &c." 

Those who explain Christ's declaration of his having "come into 
the world to bear witness of the truth," in some sense in itself intel- 
ligible, but quite unconnected with the inquiry He was answering, 
as to his being " a King," seem to forget that what He said must 
have had not only some meaning, but some meaning pertinent to the 
occasion : and this they seem as much at a loss for as Pilate himself; 
•who exclaimed, " What is truth?" not from being ignorant of the 
meaning of the word, but from perceiving no connexion between 
" truth" and the inquiry respecting the claim to regal office* — See 
Essay I. 2d Series. 



j 9.] Declarations before Pilate. 29 

The result was that Pilate acquitted Him ; 
declaring publicly that he " found no fault at 
all in Him." It is plain, therefore, that he 
must have believed — or at least professed to 
believe — both that the declarations of Jesus 
were true, and that they amounted to a total 
disavowal of all interference with the secular 
government, by Himself, or his followers, as 
such. 

Much ingenuity has been expended, importance 

T ill 7 ofcousider- 

— 1 must needs sa}^, has been wasted, — ing the oc- 

. . casion on 

in drawing out irom our Lord s expres- whichJesus 
. i i • was s P ealc " 

sions before Pilate, every sense that his ia s- 

words can be found capable of bearing ; while 
a man of little or no ingenuity, but of plain good 
sense and sincerity of purpose, seeking in sim- 
plicity to learn what Jesus really did mean, 
can hardly, I should think, fail of that mean- 
ing, if he does but keep in mind the occasion 
on which He was speaking, and the sense in 
which He must have known that his language 
would be understood. The occasion on which 
He spoke was when on his trial before a Ro- 
man governor, for treason, — for a design to 
subvert, or in some way interfere with, the es- 
tablished government. To this charge, it is 
plain Pilate understood Him to plead not 
guilty ; and gave credit to his plea. Pilate, 
therefore, must have taken the declaration 



30 Declarations before Pilate* [Ess at I. 

that Christ's "-kingdom k not of this world," 
as amounting to a renunciation of all secular 
coercion, — all forcible measures in behalf of 
his religion. And we cannot without impu-r. 
ting to our blessed Lord a fraudulent evasion, 
suppose Him to have really meant any thing 
different from the sense which he knew his 
words conveyed. Such iis the conclusion 
which I cannot but think any man must come 
to who is not seeking, as in the interpretation 
of an Act of Parliament, for any sense most 
to his own purpose,, that the words can be 
made to bear, however remote that may be 
from the known design of the Legislator ; 
but who, with reverential love, is seeking with 
simplicity and in earnest to learn what is 
the description that Christ gave of his king- 
dom. 

But the ingenuity which has been (as I said 
before) wasted in trying to explain our Lord's 
words in some other way, has been called forth 
by a desire to escape some of the consequences 
which follow from taking them in their simple 
and obvious sense. Those who are seeking not 
really to learn the true sense of our Lord's 
declarations, but to reconcile them with the 
conduct of some Christian States, and to justify 
the employment of secular force in behalf of 
Religion, are driven to some ingenious special- 
pleading on the words employed, in order to 



5 10.] A Kingdom of this World disclaimed. 31 

draw from them such a sense as may suit their 
own purpose. 

And all this ingenuity is (as I said before) 
wasted ; because even supposing it proved that 
the words which Jesus uttered are, in them- 
selves, capable of bearing some other meaning, 
still, nothing is gained (supposing our object is, 
not to evade, but to understand. Scripture) if 
that meaning be one which could not have been 
so understood at the time, or which would 
have been one utterly foreign to the occasion, 
and irrelevant to the question that was to be 
tried. 

§ 10. For instance, I have heard it SVpreta-™" 
said that our Lord's description of his {omard. put 
kingdom as "not of this world" meant merely that 
He claimed to possess a spiritual dominion (as 
undoubtedly He did)over the souls of men, and to 
be the distributor of the rewards and judgments 
of the other world. And such certainly is his 
claim : but the essential point, with a view to the 
trial then going on, was, that this was his only 
claim. He did not merely claim spiritual do- 
minion, but he also renounced temporal. He 
declared not merely that his kingdom is of the 
next world ; but that it is not of this world. 

In fact, the mere assertion of his spi- jierea 8B er- 
ritual dominion, and one extending be- rinJai do." 
yond the grave, would have been, at would have 
3* 



32 A Kingdom of this World disclaimed. [Essay I. 

vant. irrele " tnat time, and in reference to the charge 
brought against Him, wholly irrelevant, and 
foreign to the question. He was charged with 
" speaking against Cassar," : — with making 
Himself King in opposition to the Roman em- 
peror. The Jews expected (as Pilate could 
hardly have been ignorant) a Christ who should 
be a heaven-sent " King of the Jews," possess- 
ing both temporal and spiritual authority ; a 
kingdom, both of this world and of the next : 
for the great mass of the nation believed in a 
future state. Any man claiming to be such a 
king of the Jews, would evidently be an oppo- 
nent of the Roman government. His spiritual 
pretensions, the Romans did not concern them- 
selves about. It was the assumption of temporal 
power that threatened danger to the Empire ; 
and it was of this assumption that Jesus was 
accused : did He not distinctly deny it? There 
was no question about the rewards and punish- 
ments of another world. The question was, 
whether He did or did not design to claim, for 
Himself, or his followers as such, any kind of se- 
cular empire :<* could any words have disclaimed 
it more strongly than those He used ? And 
can any one in his senses seriously believe that 
when Jesus said, " My kingdom is not of this 
world," He meant to be understood as saying 
that his kingdom was not only of this world* 
but of the next world too I- 

1. See Appendix, Note (A)-, 



5 10.] A Kingdom of this World disclaimed. 33 

No, — I have heard it said by some Jf^/^ 
other expounders, — He did mean to jjereonli 
disclaim all temporal dominion for Him- woliTd have 
self personally and at that time; but that, i us. 
hereafter, when " the kingdoms of this world- 
should become kingdoms of the Lord," and 
when " kings should become nursing-fathers" 
of his Church, when " the Church should be in 
its complete development by being perfectly 
identified with the State," — then, all those Chris-, 
tians who should have attained power, should 
exercise that power in enforcing the profession 
of his Gospel-, and in putting down idolatry, 
infidelity, heresy, dissent, and all false religion. 
In short, at the time when Christ stood before 
Pilate, his kingdom was not of this world, " be- 
cause" (I am citing the words of one of the most 
celebrated ancient divines) "that prophecy was 
not yet fulfilled, ' Be wise now, therefore, ye 
kings, be learned, ye that are judges of the 
earth ; serve the Lord with fear ;' " the rulers 
of the earth, he adds, were at that time opposed 
to the Gospel ; the Apostles and other early 
disciples were unable to compel men. to conform 
to the true faith ; and therefore it was that the 
secular arm was not yet called to aid against 
the Church's enemies. 

Now, without entering into the ques- to claim 
tion whether our Lord's words could, power for 

.his follow- 
in themselves, bear such a meaning y era would.- 



34 A Kingdom of this World disclaimed. [Essay I. 

have been let us confine ourselves to the princi- 

to plead m x 

guilty. pl e we set out with, and merely con- 
sider whether He could possibly have meant to 
be so understood. For this, we should observe, 
would clearly have been to plead guilty to the 
charge. It mattered nothing to the Roman 
Government whether it were Jesus Himself, or 
his followers, that should revolt against Caesar's 
power, and set up a rival kingdom. And there- 
fore, when our Lord himself, and afterwards 
Paul and the other Apostles, defended them- 
selves against the imputation of seditious de- 
signs, it is impossible they could have meant to 
be understood as merely disclaiming such de- 
signs for the present, and renouncing temporal 
dominion only for themselves, personally, but re- 
serving for their followers, when these should 
have become strong enough, the right to estab- 
lish by force a Christian political ascendancy, 
and to put down all other religions. To have 
defended themselves against their accusers by 
acknowledging the very designs which those ac- 
cusers imputed to them, would have been down- 
right insanity. 

Parallel But such absurdities as would, in any 

case of 7 7 . , r 

political re- other subject, revolt every man oi com- 

volution- . 

>sts. mon sense, are sometimes tolerated in 

the interpretations of Scripture, that are framed 
in order to serve a purpose. For instance, sup- 
pose some emissaries of the Pretender in the 



§ 10.J A Kingdom of tliis World disclaimed. 35 

last century, or, in later times, of the French re- 
volutionists, or of the Chartists, or any set of re- 
volutionists of the present day, to go about the 
country proclaiming and disseminating their 
principles,, and then to be arrested and brought 
to trial for sedition : can any one conceive them 
defending themselves against the charge* by 
pleading that they did not intend that they them.', 
selves, but that their disciples, should obtain the 
government of the country, and enforce their 
principles ; that they aimed at the possession and 
the monopoly of civil rights 1 ' and privileges, 
not for themselves, but for their successors ; that 
they did not mean to take up arms till they 
should have collected a sufficient number of fol- 
lowers ; and that they taught all men to yield 
obedience to the existing government till they 
should be strong enough to overthrow it ? Who 
does not see at once that to urge such a plea 
would convince every one of their being mad- 
men ? And yet this is what must be imputed, 
to Jesus and bis disciples, by any one who can., 
suppose that they meant to be miderstood by the 
Roman magistrates as merely disclaiming all 
interference with civil government, till they 
should become numerous enough to enforce the 
claim ; — all resort to secular coercion in reli- 
gious matters, till they should have strength to 
employ it effectually ; — all political monopoly, 

r See Appendix, Note (A.) 



36 A Kingdom of this World disclaimed. [Essay I. 

till they should be in a condition to maintain it 
by a strong hand. 

Jesus then it is plain, when He said " My king- 
dom is not of this world" could not have meant 
to be understood as implying that it should be so 
hereafter. 

One of the modes in which it has been 
attempted to explain away the teaching of 
Christ and his Apostles, is by representing them 
as inculcating only the duty of Subjects towards 
Governors, and not meaning that the same 
principles should be applied in reference to 
the duty of Governors towards Subjects : so 
that though Christians were to " be subject, for 
conscience' sake," even to idolatrous rulers 
(as long as nothing at variance with Chris- 
tian duty was enjoined) the right was re- 
served, it seems, to Christians, whenever 
they might obtain political power, to em- 
ploy this in forcibly maintaining and propa- 
gating their own religion, s and securing to its 
professors a monopoly of civil rights. As if 
a citizen, of whatever persuasion, had not 
the same claim to the rights of a citizen, that a 

8 I know not how the oppression under which the Vaudoia 
are now suffering (see the Pamphlet referred to in the Preface) 
can be objected to by Protestants who hold these principles, 
unless they renounce altogether the rule of doing as we would be 
done by. 



{ 11.] Christ could have had no hidden Meaning. 37 

ruler, of whatever persuasion, has to the rights 
of a ruler! As if the Christian-principles im- 
plied in " render unto Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's" ..." render unto all their due" were 
not equally applicable to the duties either of 
Subject or of Prince ! 

And supposing (what is inconceivable) that 
any such groundless and fanciful distinction had 
been in the mind of our Lord and his Apostles, 
and moreover that they had meant the Roman 
magistrates so to understand them, and also that 
those magistrates had given them credit for 
sincerity, still, after all, nothing is gained by 
these suppositions : since there could be no 
security against a Christian's obtaining political 
power, or against a man's embracing Christiani- 
ty who was already in power. And if this 
power was to be exerted in propagating the Reli- 
gion by those coercive means which a civil magis- 
trate is enabled to employ, no one in his senses 
can doubt, that had Christ and his Apostles been 
understood as acknowledging this, they would 
have been pleading guilty to the charges brought 
against them. 1 



§11. But had He then some hidden supposed 
meaning, which He did not intend to meaning of 
be understood at the time ? Did He declaration. 



1 See Essays on the Dangers, &c. pp. 210—213. 



38 Christ could have had no hidden Meaning. [Essay I. 

design to convey one sense to the Roman 
governor, and another to his own disciples ? 
■^to reserve for his followers in future 
times, that power to enforce the acknow*- 
iedgment of his gospel, which He pretended to 
disclaim. 

It seems almost too shocking even to ask such 
a question : and yet it is but too true, that such, 
in substance, (however glossed over in words) 
must be the meaning attributed to our blessed 
Lord by those who would reconcile his declara- 
tions before Pilate with that which they repre- 
sent as the right and the duty of every Christian 
Governor. "The magistrate" they say (lam 
giving the very words that have been employed) 
V who restrains, coerces, and punishes any one 
who opposes the true faith, obeys the command 
of God :" and they contend that a Christian 
Governor is not only authorized, but bounds 
to secure to the professors of the true faith a 
monopoly of political power and civil rights. 
Now, to reconcile such doctrines with the decla- 
rations of Christ and his Apostles, a meaning 
must be attributed to those declarations which it 
would have been madness for them to have 
avowed at the time; — in short, a hidden mean- 
ing. 

It is recorded of an ancient king of Egypt-^ 
one of the Ptolemies — that he employed a cele- 
brated architect to build a magnificent Light- 



f 11.) Christ could have had no hidden Meaning. 39 

House, for the benefit of shipping, and ordered 
an inscription in honour of himself to be 
engraved on it ; the architect, it is said, though 
inwardly coveting the honour of such a record 
for himself, was obliged to comply ; but made 
the inscription on a plaster resembling stone, 
but of perishable substance : in the course of 
years this crumbled away ; and the next genera- 
tion saw another inscription, recording the name, 
not of the King, but of the architect, which had 
been secretly engraved on the durable stone 
below. 

Now, iust such a device as this is at- Dishonesty 

J m of a double 

tributed to our Lord and his Apostles meaning, 
by those who believe them to have designed 
that secular power should hereafter be called 
in to enforce the Christian Faith, though 
all such designs were apparently disavowed, 
in order to serve a present purpose. Ac- 
cording to such interpreters, " My kingdom is 
not of this world," was only an inscription 
on the perishable plaster ; the design of 
"coercing and punishing" by secular power 
all opponents of the true faith, was, it seems, 
the engraving on the stone beneath. " Ren- 
der unto Caesar the things that be Caesar's, " 
was but the outward part of the inscription ; the 
addition was an inner hidden engraving, directing 
that Christians, when become strong enough, 
should compel both Caesar and his subjects,-^- 
4 



40 Christ could have had no hidden Meaning. [Essay L 

all Rulers and all citizens — either to acknow- 
ledge the true faith, or to forfeit their civil 
rights. It was the outside inscription only 
that ran thus, " Submit yourselves to every 
ordinance of man ; * * * the powers that be, 
are ordained of God :" the secret characters 
on the stone said, " Take care as soon as pos- 
sible to make every ordinance of man sub-* 
mit to you" and to provide that none but 
those of your own Body shall he in au- 
thority; and that they shall use that au- 
thority in enforcing the profession of your 
religion.* 

It might seem incredible, did we not know it 
to be the fact, that persons professing a deep 
reverence for Christ and his Apostles as heaven-^ 
sent messengers, should attribute to them this 
double-dealing; — should believe them to have 
secretly entertained and taught the very views 
of which their adversaries accused them, and 
which they uniformly disclaimed : that the 
blessed Jesus Himself, who rebukes hypocrisy 
more strongly than perhaps any other sin, should 
be regarded by his professed followers as having 
pretended to disavow that which was his real 
design, and which He imparted to his Apostles ; 
teaching them, in like manner to keep the secret 

n Of this subject I have treated more fully in the " Essay on Per- 
eecution," 3d Series; and in Appendix E. and F. to "Essays on 
the Dangers," &c. 4th Series. 



\ 11.] Christ could have had no hidden Meaning. 41 

till they should be strong enough to assert the 
political supremacy of the Gospel, and to extir- 
pate, or hold in subjection as vassals, all profes- 
sors of false religions. 

All this I say, might seem hardly SflbSn? 
credible, did not daily experience show Sng to 
us how easily (not only in this but in ourLord - 
other cases also) even intelligent men are 
satisfied with the slightest pretences of argu- 
ment — with the most extravagant conclusions 
— when they are seeking not really for in- 
struction as to what they ought to do, but for 
a justification of what they are inclined to do. 
Such a bias of inclination, is like the magnet 
which is said to have been once secretly placed 
near a ship's compass by a traitor who purposed 
to deliver the crew into the enemy's hands. All 
their diligence and skill in working the ship and 
steering by this perverted compass, served only 
to further them on the wrong course. 

Without presuming to pronounce judgment 
on the general moral character of others, I 
cannot forbear saying, for myself, that if I could 
believe Jesus to have been guilty of such sub- 
terfuges as I have been speaking of, I not only 
could not acknowledge Him as sent from God, 
but should reject Him with the deepest moral in- 
dignation. 

How far this indignant disgust may have been 
excited in the breasts of some who have taken 



42 Spiritual and Secular Societies. [Essay I. 

for granted, on the authority of learned and 
zealous divines, that the interpretation I have 
been reprobating is to be received, and who may 
in consequence, have rejected Christianity with 
abhorrence, it is for those who maintain such 
an interpretation carefully to consider. 

fr-umeTts $ !'?■ It is m many respects import- 
gener c a e iiy bv ant t° observe and to keep in mind, to 
men! lgent how great an extent both an obliquity of 
moral judgment, and a deficiency in the reason- 
ing-powers, will often affect, on some one or two 
particular points, a man who maybe, on the whole, 
and in other points, where his particular preju- 
dices have not gained dominion, a person both 
morally and intellectually above the average. In 
the present case, for instance, one may find men 
of much intelligence misled by a fallacy 
which in the ordinary concerns of life every 
person of common sense would see through at 
once. 

°rSt° ns Was lt designed, they say, that Chris- 
obvious in- ti ans should never take any part in civil 
terpreta- a ff a j rs ; — should never be magistrates or 
legislators, and thus partake of political power ? 
And if this is permitted, must they not, as civil 
magistrates, act on Christian principles? No 
doubt ; but they would cease to acton Christian 
principles if they should employ the coercive pow- 
er of civil magistrates in the cause of Christianity ; 



§ 12.] not to be confounded. 43 

if they should not only take a part in civil af- 
fairs, but claims Christians, or as members of a 
particular Church, cLmo?iopoly of civil rights. It 
is this, and this only, that tends to make Christ's 
kingdom "a kingdom of this world." 

Now this is a distinction which in all p e b r 6 son s am6 
other cases is readily perceived by membersof 
every man of common sense. For in- Sties. 1 S °" 
stance, there are many well-known Societies in 
this and in most other countries, which no one 
would call in anydegree political Societies ; such 
as Academies for the cultivation of mathematical 
and other sciences, — Agricultural Societies, — 
Antiquarian Societies, and the like ; now it 
would be reckoned silly even to ask respect- 
ing any one of these Societies, whether the 
members of it were excluded from taking any 
part in civil affairs, and whether a magistrate 
or a legislator could be admitted as a member 
of it. Every one would see the absurdity of 
even entertaining any doubt on this point: and 
it would be reckoned no less silly to inquire 
whether the admission of such persons as mem- 
bers, constituted that Academy a political So- 
ciety. It would at once be answered that the 
Society itself, and the members of it as such, had 
nothing to do with political, but only with scien- 
tific matters ; and that though individual mem- 
bers of it might be also members of the legisla- 
ture, the provinces of the two Societies, as So- 
4* 



44 Spiritual and Secular Societies. [Essay I. 

cieties, — of a scientific association, and a politi- 
cal community,— ^are altogether distinct. 
Sfgu "by Now tn * s * s J us * tne non-interference 
ties Ap °to i n political affairs which Christ and his 
verts. con " Apostles professed, and taught, and 
carried into practice, in respect of the religion 
of the GospeL As the Apostle Peter converted 
to the Faith Cornelius the Centurion, so likewise 
Paul, who avowed his practice of " witnessing 
both to small and gra/V-^converted Sergius 
Paulus the Roman Governor at Paphos, and 
Dionysius the Areopagite, a judge of the highest 
court at Athens ; and expressed his ardent 
wish to convert King Agrippa, and also all 
u who heard him that day." Yet neither Peter 
nor Paul ever thought of desiring the'Centurion 
— the Governor — -the Judge and the King, to 
lay down their offices, and renounce all con- 
cern with secular business ; nor did they ever 
dream that their holding such offices when 
Christians, would make Christ's a " kingdom of 
this world." They wished, and they openly 
endeavoured, to make " the kingdoms of this 
world the kingdoms of the Lord,"* and "kings 
the nursing- fathers of the Church," in the sense 
of making the individuals of every nation, men> 
bers of Christ ; — of inducing kings and magis- 

x Some Millennarians understand this prophecy as referring to a. 
temporal reign of Christ on earth. See " Scripture Revelations of 
a. Future State." Lect, on Millennium. 



§ 12.] not to be confounded. 45 

tratee, and subjects too, to- abstain from perse- 
cuting Christians, and to become Christians, and 
to act so as to induce others to follow their ex- 
ample. 

It has been said that this passage re- ah chris- 
specting the "kingdoms of this world be- quired to 
coming the kingdoms of the Lord," de- christian 

. . . principles, 

scribes the Christian Church in its per- in a . 11 th «i 

1 relations ot 

fection, and " My kingdom is not of llfe - 
this world," describes it in its infancy. But 
what Jesus and his Apostles taught on this point, 
belongs, and ever did. and ever will belong, 
to the Christian Church in every stage alike ; 
namely, that the Christian is to act,, in all the 
relations of life, in whatever circumstances he 
is placed, on Christian principles. And what 
were the principles they inculcated ? " Ren- 
der unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
unto God the things that are God's :" " Render 
unto all their due; tribute to whom tribute is 
due ; custom, to whom custom ; fear, to whom 
fear ; honour, to whom honour :" " Submit 
yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the 
Lord's sake :" " Ye must needs be subject, not 
only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake," 
&c. Never was the Christian required to do 
less than conform to such principles ; never 
will he be called on to do more. 

If Sergius Paulus and other converted Different 

kinds of so- 
Roman governors had consulted Paul, cieties to 



46 Spiritual and Secular Societies. [Essay I. 

b inc k t e as di t S o whether they should use their power as 



tinct 

their end 



andTmeans. Roman governors to put down Paganism 
by force, or if Dionysius, after having in- 
duced (suppose) the other judges of the Areo- 
pagus to embrace the Gospel, had proposed to 
the Apostle that that Court should sit in judg- 
ment on religious offences,, and inflict penalties 
on all persons opposing or rejecting the true 
Faith, or deprive them of civil rights, — if the 
Apostle Paul, I say, had been thus consulted, 
what answer, think you, he would have given ? 
What answer must he have given, if we believe 
him sincere in his professions, and if we be- 
lieve his great Master to have really meant ex- 
actly what He declared ? The Apostle would 
surely have explained to such inquirers that 
Christ meant the reception of his Gospel to rest 
on sincere inward conviction, not on constrained 
outward profession, which is all that legal pen- 
alties can produce : — that their office as gover- 
nors and judges, was to take cognizance of 
men's overt acts, and to punish and restrain 
crimes against the civil community ;, but that 
their duty as Christians- was to regulate, and 
try to persuade others to regulate, the inward 
motives and dispositions of the heart, according 
to Gospel principles ; and to keep themselves 
not from crimes merely, but from sins against 
God ; and to " exercise themselves in having 
themselves a conscience void of offence, before 



ij 12.} not- to be confounded. 47 

God and man," (Acts xxiv. 16,) not in seeking 
to force another to speak or act against his con- 
science. He would not have forbidden them to 
take a part (as it is most fit that the laity should) 
in the government of the Church, or to hold any 
ecclesiastical or spiritual office in it ; or again, 
to retain their civil offices : but he would have 
deprecated with abhorrence their blending the 
two classes of offices together, and attempting 
to employ the power of coercion which essen- 
tially belongs to the civil magistrate, in the 
cause of Christ's religion. He would have told 
them to strive to convert and reclaim their 
neighbours from superstitious error, (even as 
he had converted them)- by instruction and per^ 
suasion; never losing sight of their great Mas- 
ter's rule, of doing as they would be done 
by ; not inflicting therefore on the unbe- 
liever the persecution which they had disap- 
proved when directed against Christians; but 
leaving to every man that liberty of con- 
science which- they desired to enjoy them- 
selves. 

Such would have been the answer, I think 
we cannot doubt, which the Apostles would 
have given to such inquirers'; and which, if Peter 
and Paul were now on earth, they would give 
to any like questions at this day. For such 
surely must be the decision of any one who is con- 
vinced that Jesus Himself was perfectly sincere 



48 Tolerance a Fruit of [Essay I. 

in the declaration He made at his trial, and that 
He " left us an example, that we should follow 
his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile 
found in his mouth." 

ktLtudl«a e - d § 13 - Yet if the Apostle Paul, with 
dency ^of these sentiments, were now on earth, 
p^ncipieT 3 would there not be some danger of his 
being accounted a latkudinarian — a person 
nearly indifferent. about religious distinctions, — 
regarding one Religion nearly as good as 
another ;— ready to profess any, — and believ- 
ing little or nothing of any ? For such is the 
character often attributed to any one who dis- 
approves of the employment of secular force in 
behalf of the true Faith, or the monopoly by its 
professors, of civil rights. 

Ha!, itu prin-" That tnere are persons indifferent 
toferaiit. ia " about all religions, is true ; and it is true 
that some of them are, from humanity of dispo- 
sition, averse to persecution and coercion. For 
many persons, — perhaps most, — are tolerant or 
intdlerent according to their respective tempers, 
and not according to their principles. But as 
far as principles are concerned, certainly the 
latitudinarian is the more likely to be intolerant, 
and the sincerely conscientious tolerant. A 
man who is careless about religious sincerity, 
may clearly see and appreciate the political 
convenience of religious uniformity ; and if he 



§ 13.] Christian Knowledge and Faith. 49 

has no religious scruples of his own, he will not 
be the more likely to be tender of the religious 
scruples of others : if he is ready himself to pro- 
fess what he does not believe, he will see no 
reason why others should not do the same. 

That man on the contrary whose own con- 
science is tender, and his sense of religion deep- 
felt and sincere, will be (so far) the more dis- 
posed to respect the conscience of another, and 
to avoid giving occasion to hypocritical profes- 
sions. His own faith being founded on genuine 
conviction, he will seek for the genuine con- 
viction of others, and not their forced con^ 
formity. He will remember that "the highest 
truth, if professed by one who believes it not in 
his heart, is, to him, a lie, and that he sins 
greatly by professing it. Let us try as much 
as we will, to convince our neighbours ; but 
let us beware of influencing their conduct, when 
we fail in influencing their convictions. He 
who bribes or frightens his neighbour into do- 
ing an act which no good man would do for re- 
ward, or from fear, is tempting his neighbour 
to sin ; he is assisting to lower and to harden 
his conscience ;— to make him act for the fa- 
vour or from the fear of man, instead of for the 
favour and from the fear of God : and if this be 
a sin in him, it is a double sin in us to tempt 
him to it." y 

y Arnold's Christian Life, p. AZb. 



50 Tolerance. [Essay I. 

kdgeofX^ An ^ above all, in proportion as any 
Sncfudve man has a right understanding of the 
tu>n. ° l " Gospel, and a deep veneration for his 
great Master, and an earnest desire to tread in 
his steps, and a full confidence in his promises, 
in the same degree will he perceive 1 hat the em- 
ployment of secular coercion in the cause of the 
Gospel is at variance with the true spirit of the 
Gospel ; and that Christ's declarations are to be 
interpreted as He himself knew them to be un- 
derstood, then, and are to be the guide of his 
followers, now. 
Tolerance And finally, such a man will be tron- 

one fruit of m J 

foith. vinced that it implies a sinful distrust,-^- 

a want of faith in Christ's wisdom, and good- 
ness, and power,-^-to call in the aid of the arm 
of flesh of military or civil force,^— in the cause 
of Him who declared that He could have called 
in the aid of " more than twelve legions of 
angels ;" and who, when " all power was given 
unto Him in Heaven and in Earth," sent forth 
his disciples — not to subjugate, or to coerce, but 
to " teach all nations ;" and " sent them forth as 
sheep among the wolves," forewarned of perse- 
cutions, and instructed to "bless them that cursed 
them," to return " good for evil;" and to " en- 
dure all things,^ — hope all things,^ — believe all 
things," for which He, their Master, had prepared 
them : — to believe all that He had taught,^— to 
hope all that He had promised, and to endure 
and do all that He had commanded. 



ESSAY II 



ON THE 



CONSTITUTION OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
ITS POWERS, AND MINISTRY. 



Oiy&Q iavio-bg xyQ-ucaofuev, &\laXqiaibv 'Itjfrovv KtigioP 
kavrovg di, dovXovg vfiwv did. 'Irjuovv. 2 Cor. iv. 5. 



ESSAY II. 



§ 1. Op all who acknowledge Jesus ch™tian- 

ity design- 

of Nazareth as their Master, " the ed to be a 

social Re- 
Author and Finisher of their faith," i«6«>n. 

there are scarcely any who do not agree in re- 
garding Him as the Founder and perpetual 
Head of a religious Society also ; — as having 
instituted and designed for permanent continu- 
ance, a Community or system of Communities, 
to which his Disciples here on earth were to 
belong. The religion He introduced was ma- 
nifestly designed by Him, — and so understood 
by his immediate followers, — to be a social Re- 
ligion. It was not merely a revelation of cer- 
tain truths to be received, and of practical rules 
to be observed, — it was not a mere system of 
doctrines and precepts to be embraced by each 
individual independently of others ; and in 



54 Christianity a social Religion. [Essay II. 

which his agreement or co-operation with any 
others, would be accidental ; as when several 
men have come to the same conclusions in some 
Science, or have adopted the same system of 
Agriculture or of Medicine ; but it was to be a 
combination of men who should be " members 
of the Body of Christ," — living stones of one 
Spiritual Temple ; a "edifying" (i. e. building 
up) " one another in their Faith ;" — and bre- 
thren of one holy Family. 

This "Kingdom of Heaven" as it is called, 
which the Lord Jesus established, was pro- 
claimed (i. e. preached) 6 by his forerunner John 
the Baptist as " at hand." And the same, in 
this respect, was the preaching of our Lord 
Himself, and of his Disciples, — first the Twelve, 
and afterwards the Seventy, — whom He sent 
out during his ministry on earth. The good 
tidings they were to proclaim, were only of the 
approaching Kingdom of Heaven ; it was a joy- 
ful expectation only that they were commissioned 
to spread : it was a preparation of men's hearts 
for the coming of that Kingdom, that they were 
to teach. 

a See Sermon IV., " On a Christian Place of Worship," and also 
Dr. Hinds's " Three Temples." 

b This word has come to be ordinarly applied to religious instruc- 
tion; from which, however, it is always clearly distinguished in 
Scripture. It signifies, properly, to announce as a herald. Our 
Lord's "preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand," and 
his teaching, the People, are always, expressed by different words. 



$ 1.] Christianity a social Religion. 55 

But when the personal ministry of Christ 
came to a close, the Gospel they were thence- 
forward to preach was the good tidings of that 
Kingdom not approaching merely, but actually 
begun, — of the first Christian Community set on 
foot, — of a kingdom which their Master had 
"appointed unto them:" thenceforward, they 
were not merely to announce that kingdom, but 
to establish it, and invite all men to enrol them- 
selves in it: they were not merely to make 
known, but to execute, their Master's design, 
of commencing that Society of which He 
is the Head, and which He has promised 
to be with " always, even unto the end of the 
world." 

We find Him, accordingly, directing Jf^chS. 
them not only to "go into all the world, tianSociet *- 
and preach to every creature, " d but further, to 

c It is likely that the Doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer, 
" Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory," (which all 
the soundest critics, I believe, are now agreed, does not exist in the 
best MSS. of the Gospels,) was adopted by the Disciples very soon 
after our Lord's departure from earth. At the time when He first 
taught the prayer to his Disciples, it would have been premature to 
speak of the heavenly kingdom in the present tense, as actually es- 
tablished. They were taught to pray for its coming as a thing 
future. At a later period, it was no less proper to allude to it as 
already existing; and the prayer for its " coming," would be, from 
the circumstances of the case, a prayer for its continued extension 
and firmer hold on men's hearts. 

d See a Sermon by Dr. Dickinson, (now Bishop of Meath,) on 
our Lord's two charges to his discipk s. 



56 Christianity a social Religion. [Essay I! 

" teach" ("make disciples of," as in the mar- 
gin of the Bible) " all nations ;" admitting them 
as members of the Body of Disciples, by " bap- 
tizing them into e the name of the Father, and 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost." 

Of his design to establish what should be 
emphatically a Social Religion, — a "Fellow- 
ship" or " Communion of Saints," there can 
be, I think, no doubt in the mind of any re- 
flecting reader of our sacred books. Besides 
our Lord's general promise of " coming unto, 
and dwelling in, any man who should love Him 
and keep his saying," there is a distinct pro- 
mise also of an especial presence in any Assembly 
— even of "two or three — gathered together in 
his name." Besides the general promises 
made to prayer, — to the prayer of an indivi- 
dual " in the closet," — there is a distinct pro- 
mise also to those who shall " agree together 
touching something they shall ask." And it 
is in conformity with his own institution that 
Christians have, ever since, celebrated what 
they designate as, emphatically, the Com- 
munion, by "meeting together to break bread," 
in commemoration of his redemption of his- 
People. 



e " In the name," is a manifest mis-translation, originating, ap- 
parently, with the Vulgate Latin, which has "in nomine." The 
preposition, in the original, is not iv but tig,, "into" or " to." 



§ 2.] Properties of a Community. 57 

His design, in short, manifestly was to adapt 
his Religion to the social principles of man's 
nature ; f and to bind his disciples, throughout 
all ages, to each other, by those ties of mutual 
attachment, sympathy, and co-operation, which 
in every human Community and Association, 
of whatever kind, are found so powerful. 

§ 2. Obvious, and indeed trite, as the ofTc™- 
remark may appear, most persons are munit y- 
apt, I think, not sufficiently to consider what 
important conclusions result from it ; — how 
much is implied in the constituting of a Com- 
munity. It is worth while, therefore, to pause 
at this point, and inquire what are the in- 
herent properties and universal character 
naturally and necessarily belonging to any 
regularly-constituted Society, as such, for what- 
ever purpose formed. For I think it will ap- 
pear, on a very simple examination, that seve- 
ral points which have been denied or disre- 
garded by some, and elaborately, but not al- 
ways satisfactorily maintained by others, arise, 
as obvious consequences, out of the very intrin- 
sic character,— the universal and necessary 
description of a regular community. 

It seems to belong to the very essence n it Coinn J"; 
©f a Community, that it should have — quires 

£ See Bampton Lecture* for the year 1822, Lect. I. 



58 Properties of a Community. [Essay II. 

Ruts? wd lst > Officers of some kind ; 2dly, Rules 
admh to enforced by some kind of penalties ; 

Members. an(Jj 3^ g ome power Q f admitting 

and excluding persons as Members, 

For, lst, whatever may be the character, and 
whatever the proposed objects, of a regularly- 
constituted Community, Officers of some kind 
are essential to it. In whatever manner they may 
be appointed, — whether by hereditary succes- 
sion, or by rotation, — or by election of any kind, 
—whatever be the number or titles of them, and 
whatever the distribution of their functions,^- 
(all which are matters of detail,) Officers of some 
kind every Community must have. And these, 
or some of these, while acting in their proper 
capacity, represent the Community ; and are, so 
far, invested with whatever powers and rights 
belong to it; so that their acts, their rights, 
their claims, are considered as those of the whole 
Body. We speak,, e. g. indifferently of this or 
that having been done by the Athenians, the 
Romans, the Carthaginians ;, or by the Athenian, 
the Roman, or Carthaginian Government or Ru- 
lers.% And so also when we speak of the acts of 
some University, or of the Governors of that 

s And it is to be observed that it makes no difference, as to this 
point, whether the Governors are elected by the governed, and in 
any degree restrained by them, or are hereditary and unlimited. In 
all cases, the established and recognised Rulers of any Communi- 
ty are considered as representing it. 



5 2.] Properties of a Community. 59 

University, we are using two equivalent ex- 
pressions. 

2dly. It seems equally essential to of B f e com! 
every Community that it should have SUdiig on 
certain Regulations or Bye-laws, bind- b e s rs . D,em ' 
ingon its own members. And if it be not wholly 
subjected to the control, and regulated by the 
directions of some extraneous power, but is in 
any degree an independent Community, it must 
so far, have power to enact, and abrogate, — to 
suspend, alter, and restore, bye-laws, for itself; 
namely, such regulations, extending to matters 
intrinsically indifferent, as are not at variance 
with the enactments of any superior authority. 
The enforcement also of the regulations of a 
Community by some kind of Penalties, is evi- 
dently implied by the very existence of Regula- 
tions. To say of any Community that its Laws 
are valid, and binding on its members, is to say 
that the violators of them may justly be visited 
with penalties: and to recognise Officers in any 
Community is to recognise as among its Laws, 
submission to those officers while in the exercise 
of their legitimate functions. 

In the case of Political Communi- po £ e a r erc b v e ! 
ties, which is a peculiar one, inasmuch po,f t s ical t0 
as they necessarily exercise an abso- £°™ mum " 
lutely -coercive power, — the penalties must be 
determined according to the wisdom and jus- 
tice of each Government, and can have no 



60 Properties, of a Community. [Essay II. 

other limit. But in a voluntary Community, 
the ultimate Penalty must be expulsion ; all 
others, short of this, being submitted to as the 
alternative.^ But in every Community, of what- 
ever description (or in those under whose con- 
trol it is placed) there must reside a power of 
enacting, enforcing, and remitting, the Penal- 
ties by which due submission to its laws and 
to its officers is to be secured. 
Admission 3dly. Lastly, no less essential to a 

to member- ~ . . 

sbip of a Community seems to be a power, 
mty. lodged somewhere, of determining ques- 

tions of Membership. Whatever may be the 
claims or qualifications on which that may de- 
pend, — nay, even whether the community be a 
voluntary Association, or (as is the case with 
political Communities) one claiming compulsory 
power, — and whatever may be its purpose — in 
all cases, the admission to it, or exclusion from 
it, of each individual, must be determined by 
some recognised authority. 

Since therefore this point, and also those 
others above-mentioned, seem, naturally and 
necessarily, to belong to every regular Commu- 
nity, — since it must, in short, consist of regularly- 
constituted Members, subject to certain Rules, 
and having certain Officers, it follows, that who- 
ever directs or sanctions the establishment 



h See Appendix, Note (B.) 



§ 3.J Rights divinely conferred on a Church. 61 

of a Community (as our Lord certainly did in 
respect of Christian Churches,) must be under- 
stood as thereby sanctioning those institutions 
which belong to the essence of a Community. 
To recognise a Community as actually having 
a legitimate existence, or as allowably to be 
formed, is to recognise it as having Officers, — 
as having Regulations enforced by certain Pe- 
nalties, and as admitting or refusing to admit 
Members. 

§ 3. All this, I say, seems to be im- JSi^cdi 
plied by the very nature of the case. J?JJ- 



ed on a 
stiaa 



Conimu- 



But, on purpose, as it should seem, to SJ™ 1 
provide against any misapprehension or uncer- 
tainty, our Lord did not stop at the mere general 
sanction given by Him to the formation of a 
Christian Community, but He also particular- 
ized all the points I have been speaking of. He 
appointed orordained the ftrstOfficers; Herecog- 
nised the power of enacting and abrogating 
Rules ; and He gave authority for the admitting 
of Members. 

Such is the obvious sense of his directions to 
his Apostles : obvious, I mean, to them, — with 
such habits of thought and of expression as they 
had, and as He must have known them to 
have. He must have known well what 
meaning his words would convey to his own 
countrymen, at that time. But some things 



62 Rights divinely conferred on a Church. [Essay It, 

which would appear plain and obvious to a Jew, 
— even an unlearned Jew, — in those days, may 
be such as to require some examination and 
careful reflection to enable us, of a distinct Age 
and Country, to apprehend them in the same 
sense. When however we do examine and re- 
flect, we can hardly doubt, I think — consider- 
ing to whom, and at what time, He was speak- 
ing — that our Lord did sanction and enjoin the 
formation of a permanent religious Community or 
Communities, possessing all those powers which 
Power to have been above alluded to. The 

bind and r , . ,. , , . ,, 

loose.power power oi " bindins; and loosing ; — ^. e. 

of the keys, r . i r- • J V i 

and power enacting and enforcing, and ot abroga- 

of remission . & ° & 

ofsins. ting or suspending regulations, for a 
Christian Society, — was recognised by his pro- 
mise 1 of the divine ratification of those acts, — the 
" binding and loosing in heaven." The '? Keys 
of the Kingdom of Heaven," denote the power 
of admitting persons Members of the Church, 
and excluding them from it. And the expres- 
sion respecting the " remitting and retaining of 
sins," if it is to be understood (as I think it is) 
as extending to any thing beyond the power of 
admitting members into Christ's Church by 
" Baptism for remission ofsins," must relate to 
the enforcement or remission of ecclesiastical 
censures for offences against a Christian Com- 
munity. 

See Appendix, Note (C). 



$ 4.] Constitution of the Jewish Church. 63 

By attentive reflection on the two topics I 
have here suggested — namely, on the rights and 
powers essentially inherent in a Community, 
and consequently implied in the very institution 
of a Community, so far as they are not expressly 
excluded ; and again on the declarations of our 
Lord, as they must have been understood by his 
Disciples, : — by reflection, I say* on these two 
topics, we shall be enabled, I think, to simplify 
and clear up several questions which have been 
sometimes involved in much artificial obscurity 
and difficulty. 

§ 4. And our view of the sense in tiST^'the 
which our Lord's directions are to be church, 
understood will be the more clear and decided, 
if we reflect that all the circumstances which 
have been noticed as naturally pertaining to 
every Community, are to be found in that re- 
ligious Community in which the Disciples had 
been brought up; — the Jewish Church, or (as it 
is called in the Old Testament) the Congrega- 
tion, or Ecclesia, k of which each Synagogue 
was a branch. 1 It had regular Officers; — the 
Elders or Presbyters, the Rulers of Syna- 
gogues, Ministers or Deacons, &c. — it had 
Bye-laws ; being not only under the Levitical 
Law, but also having authority, within certain 



Septuagint. J See Vitringa on the Synagogue. 

6 



64 Constitution of the Jewish Church. [Essay it ; 

limits, of making regulations, and enforcing 
them by penalties (among others, that which we 
find alluded to in the New Testament, of ex- 
communicating or " casting out of the Syna- 
gogue") : and it had power to admit Proselytes. 
Rights With all these points then, the Dis- 

exercised *■ 

Jewish ciples of Jesus had long been familiar. 
SuiMtothe ^nd ^ e s P°ke of them in terms with 
Disciples. w hk?h they must have been well ac- 
quainted. For instance, the expression, 
"binding and loosing" 01 was, and still is, per- 
fectly familiar to the Jews, in the sense of en- 
forcing and abrogating rules ; or, — which 
amounts precisely to the same thing, — deciding 
as to the manner, and the extent, in which a 
previously existing law is to be considered as 
binding : as is done by our Judges in their re- 
corded Decisions. 

The Jewish Church was indeed subject, by 
divine authority, to the Levitical Law. But 
minute as were the directions of that Law, there 
were still many points of detail, connected with 
the observance of it, which required to be settled 
by some competent authority : such as, for in^ 
stance, what was, or was not, to be regarded as 
" work," forbidden on the Sabbath : — what was 
to be considered as " servile work," forbidden 
on certain other days ; — and in what way the 

m See Lightfoot on this subject, and also Dr. Wotton's valuable 
work on the Mishna. 



) 9.] Constitution of the Jewish Church. 65 

injunctions respecting their food, their garments, 
the sowing of their fields, and several other 
matters, were to be observed." 

In regard to regulations of this kind, Author^ 

t j • n i • r of Jewish 

our Lord recognises the authority ot Rulers re- 

° m J cognised 

the Jewish Rulers, as being so far sue- b y Christ - 
cessorsof Moses ; for He tells his hearers, " The 
Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat ; all, 
therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that 
observe, and do." And though He adds a 
caution not to " do after their works, for they 
say, and do not," He does not teach that their 
personal demerits, or even that gross abuse of 
their power, which he strongly reprobates, 
could invalidate the legitimate exercise of that 
power. Indeed, since there is hardly any hu- 
man government that has not, at some time or 
other, abused, more or less, the power entrusted 
to it, to deny on that ground all claims what- 
ever to submission, would be the very principle 
of anarchy. 

The Jewish Rulers went beyond v ^™* £ 
their proper province, when, instead of r^. 
merely making such regulations as were neces- 
sary with a view to the due observance of the 

n Those who can procure, or gain access to Dr. W. Wotton's 
Selections from the Mishna, will find in it much curious and inter- 
esting ir>formation relative to these and several other particu- 
lars, which throws great light on many passages of the New Tes- 
tament. 



66 Commission to. the. Disciples. [Essay IL 

Mosaic Law, they superadded, on the authority 
of their supposed Tradition, commandments 
foreign to that Law ; and, still more, evasions 
of the spirit of it.° 

Jesus accordingly censures them severely, as 
1 ' teaching for doctrines the commandments of 
men ;" and again, as " making the Word of God 
of none effect, by their Tradition." But still He 
distinctly recognises their legitimate authority 
in making such regulations as were necessarily 
left to their determination. 

How the § 5. And his disciples, therefore, who 

disciples - 1 

would un- have both of these his declarations., 

derstand 

miss?on m could not have been at any loss to un r 
giventhem. derstand what He meant by giving to 
themselves and the succeeding Officers of a 
Christian Church, the power to " bind and 
loose." He charged them to " teach every one 
to observe all things whatsoever He had com- 
manded them ;" promising to be " with them 
always, even to the end of the world ; and He 
also gave them the power of " binding and 
loosing;" saying, "whatsoever ye shall bind 
on earth shall be bound in heaven ;" (i.e. ratified 
by the divine sanction) " and whatsoever ye 
shall loose on. earth, shall be loosed in heaven." 

makeVeV They would of course understand 
lations. ° by thig> nQt ^ theyj Qr any f t hei r 

See Wotton on the Mishna. 



\ 5.] How understood by them. 67 

successors, could have authority to dispense with 
their Master's commandments, — to add to or 
alter the terms of Gospel-salvation, — to teach 
them, in short, not to -'observe what He had 
commanded them," — but, to enact, from time to 
time, to alter, to abrogate, or to restore, regula- 
tions respecting matters of detail, not expressly 
determined in Scripture, but which yet must be 
determined in some way or other, with a view 
to the good order of the Community, and the 
furtherance of its great objects. 

So. also, we cannot suopose they Power of 

A r J remitting 

would even suspect that they, or sins - 
any mortal man, can have "power to for- 
give sins," as against Goal ; — that a man could 
be authorized either to absolve the mpeni- 
tent, or to shut out from divine mercy the peni- 
tent ; or again, to read the heart, so as to dis- 
tinguish between the two, without an express 
inspiration in each particular case. 

And this express inspiration in particular 
cases, whatever may have been their original 
expectations, they must soon have learned they 
were not to look for. They were to use their 
best discretion, to exercise due caution, inguard- 
ing against the admission of " false brethren" — 
" deceitful workers," — hypocritical pretenders 
to Christian faith and purity ; — but they had 
not, universally at least, any supernatural safe- 
guard against such hypocrisy. 
6* 



68 Commission to the Disciples. [Essay IL 

The example of Simon Magus would alone 
show this, even if there were no others to be 
found* He was, we find, baptized along with 
the other Samaritans (Acts viii. IS), professing, 
as of course he must have done, sincere repent- 
ance and devotion to Christ : and yet the Apos- 
tles find him, after this, to be still "in the gall 
of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." 
Acts viii. 21. 

But still, the Gospel or good-tidings which 
they were authorized and enjoined to proclaim, 
being most especially tidings of " remission of 
sins" to all who should accept the invitation 
made to, them by the preachers of that Gospel, 
they might properly be said to " remit" or 
" retain" according as they admitted to Baptism 
the attentive and professedly-penitent and be- 
lieving hearers, and left out of the number of the 
subjects of Christ's kingdom those who neg- 
lected or opposed Him. 1 ! " Repent and be 



P Of course, if there had been a distinct divine appointment 
of such a sacrament as that of Penance, as it is called (including 
private Confession and priestly Absolution) we should have been 
bound to regard that in the same light as we do the sacraments of 
Baptism and of the Eucharist. Without presuming to set limits 
to the divine favour,, we feel bound to resort to, and to administer, 
these, as appointed means of grace. But if there hadnot been that 
divine appointment of those sacraments, a Church would have no 
more authority to confer on them. a sacramental character, than on : 
the pretended, sacrament of Penapce. 



$ 6.} Penalties for Ecclesiastical Offences. 69 

baptized every one of you for the remission of sins" 
is accordingly the kind of language in which 
they invite their hearers every where to join the 
Body of their Master's People ; and yet it is 
certain the remission of sins was conditional only, 
and dependent on a condition of which lhey-~- 
the Apostles themselves — had no infallible 
knowledge ; the condition being, the real sin- 
cerity of that penitence and faith which the con- 
verts appeared and professed to have.?. 

§ 6. But although this is the only £ ity Gom " a u y * 
sense in which the Apostles, or of SSiicea 
course, any of their successors in the jjfei? 81 
Christian ministry, can be empowered to 
" forgive sins" as against God ; i. e. though 
they can only pronounce and proclaim his for- 
giveness of all those who come to Him through 
Christ, and assure each individual of his accep- 
tance with God, supposing him to be one of "those 
who truly repent and unfeignedly believe," yet 
offences as against a. Community, may, it is plain, 
be pardoned, or pardon for them withheld, by 
that Community, or by those its officers who 
duly represent it. 

Whether our Lord intended, in what for Pe E^ie! 
He said of " remitting and retaining ^Scei 
sins," to include (as seems to me probable supposi-. 

i See Speech of Bishop Satnley in the House of Lords, May 2Q, 
1840. 



70 Penalties for Ecclesiastical Offences. [Essay II. 

tion) this power of inflicting or removing ecclesias- 
tical censures for transgressions of the regulations 
of a Society, we may be perhaps not authorized 
positively to conclude ;. but at any rate, such a 
power is inherent necessarily in every Com- 
munity, so far as not expressly reserved for 
some superior jurisdiction : regulations of some 
sort or other, and consequently enforcement of 
those regulations by some kind of penalties, be- 
ing essential to a Community, and implied in 
the very nature of it. 
Different But what leads to confusion of 

views of tbe . n • i • i -i 

sameact,as thought in some minds, is, that the same 

a Sin and . ° . 

as a crime, action may otten have two distinct cha- 
racters, according to the light in which it is 
viewed ; whether as a sin x against God, or as a 
crime in reference to the Community ; and hence 
they are sometimes led to confound together the 
pardoning of the crime — the offence against the 
Community — with the pardoning of the sin. 
Now the regularly-appointed Ministers — the 
Officers of a Community may be authorized to 
enforce or remit penalties against the ecclesias- 
tical offence, — the crime in reference to the 
Community ; and may pronounce an absolute 
and complete pardon of a particular offender, for. 
a particular act, on his making the requisite 
submission and reparation, and appearing out- 
wardly, as far as man can judge, a proper 

r See Warburton's Div. Leg., 



$6.] Penalties for Ecclesiastical Offences. 71 

subject for such pardon ; while the pardon 
of sin as against God, must be co?iditio?ial on 
that hearty inward repentance, of which, 
in each case, God only, or those to whom 
He may impart the knowledge, can adequate- 
lyjudge. 

When Paul says to the Corinthians in 
reference 8 to that member of their Church who. 
had caused a scandal by his offence, " to whom- 
soever ye forgive any thing, I forgive it also," 
though I am far from saying that the offender's 
sin against God was not pardoned, it is quite 
plain this is not what the Apostle is here speak- 
ing of. He is speaking of a ease in which they 
and he were not merely to announce, but to 
bestow forgiveness. They were to receive back 
the offender, who had scandalized the Society, 
into the bosom of that Society, on his professing 
with sincerity, or rather apparent sincerity (for 
of that alone they could be judges) his contri- 
tion. They would, of course-^-as believing those 
his professions— cherish a confident hope thaX 
his sin against God was pardoned. But doubt- 
less they did not pretend either to an omniscient 
discernment of his sincerity, or to the power 
either of granting divine pardon to the impeni- 
tent, or of excluding from God's mercy the re- 
pentant sinner. 

8 2 Cor. ii. 10. 



72 Power of the Keys. [Essay IL 

£?cTey! § ?• Then again, with respect to the 
" Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven" which our 
Lord promised (Matt. xvi. 19) to give to Petery 
the Apostles could not, I conceive, doubt that 
He was fulfilling that promise, to Peter and to 

* There seems good reason to believe, — though it would be 
most unwarrantable to make it an article of faith, — that Peter 
really was the chief of the Apostles ; not, certainly, in the sense 
of exercising any supremacy and absolute control over them, — 
as dictating to their consciences, — as finally deciding all cases 
of doubt — or as claiming any right to interfere in the Churches 
other Apostles had founded, (See Gal. ii. 7 — 9 and 11 — 14,) but 
as the chief in dignity; taking precedence of the rest, and 
acting as President, Chairman, or Speaker in their meetings. 
Peter, and James, and John, and sometimes Peter, and James, — 
always with Peter placed foremost, were certainly distinguished 
as appears from numerous passages in the Gospels, from the 
rest of the Apostles. He was apparently the chief Spokesman 
on the day of Pentecost, when the Jewish Believers were first 
called on to unite themselves into a Church ; and he was the 
chosen instrument in fuunding the first Church of the (" devout") 
Gentiles, opening the door of the Kingdom of Heaven to Cornelius 
and his friends. 

I need hardly add, that to claim on that account for Peter's 
supposed successors such supreme jurisdiction over the whole 
Church-universal, as he himself neither exercised nor claimed, 
would be most extravagant. Moreover, since whatever pre- 
eminence he did possess, was confessedly, not conferred on 
him as Bishop of Rome, his supposed successors in that See 
cannot, manifestly, have any claim to that pre-eminence ; any 
more than the successors of King William the Third, in the 
office of Stadtholder, could claim the English throne And to 
speak of a succession of men, as being, each, a foundation on 
which the Church is built, is not only extravagant but un- 
meaning. 



j 7.] Power of the Keys. 73 

the rest of them conjointly, when He " ap- 
pointed unto them a Kingdom," and when, on 
the day of Pentecost, He began the building 
of his Church, and enabled them, with Peter as 
their leader and chief spokesman, to open a door 
for the entrance of about three thousand con- 
verts at once ; who received daily accessions 
to their number. The Apostles, and those com- 
missioned by them, had the office of granting 
admission into the Society from time to time, 
to such as they judged qualified. 11 

And that this Society or Church— cffi^E 
was "that Kingdom of Heaven" of SS d e °; of 
which the keys were committed to them, and 
which they had before proclaimed as " at 
hand," they could not doubt. They could not 
have been in any danger of cherishing any such 
presumptuous dream, as that they or any one 
else, except their divine Master, could have 
power to give or refuse admittance to the man- 
sions of immortal bliss. 

On the whole then, one who reads the Scrip- 
tures with attention and with candour, will be 
at no loss, I conceive, to ascertain, what was 
the sense, generally, in which our Lord's Dis- 
ciples would understand his directions and in- 
junctions. Besides what is implied, naturally 

u (roi^o/xevovs, rendered in our version " such as should be saved ;" 
by which our Translators probably meant, according to the idiom 
of their day, (which is the true sense of the original)" persons enter- 
ing on the road of salvation." 



74 Procedure of the Disciples. [Essay II. 

and necessarily, in tbe very institution of a 
Community, we know also, what the instruc- 
tions were which the Disciples had already 
been accustomed to receive from their Master, 
and what was the sense they had been used 
from childhood to attach to the expressions He 
employed. And as we may be sure, I think, 
how they would understand his words, so, we 
may be equally sure that He would not have 
failed to undeceive them, had they mistaken his 
real meaning; which therefore, we cannot doubt, 
must have been that which these Disciples ap- 
prehended. 

Procedure § 8. As for the mode in which the 
cipies in Apostles and other early Christian Min- 
to their isters carried into effect the directions 

Master's 

directions, they had received, we have indeed 
but a few, and those generally scanty and in- 
cidental, notices in the sacred writers ; but all 
the notices we do find, go to confirm — if confir- 
mation could be wanted— what has been just 
said, as to the sense in which our Lord must 
have been understood — and consequently, in 
Which He must have meant to be understood— 
by his Disciples. 

And among the important facts which we can 
collect and fully ascertain from the sacred his- 
torians, scanty and irregular and imperfect as 
are their records of particulars, one of the most 



$ 8.] under their Lord's Directions. 75 

important is, thai very scantiness and incomplete- 
ness in the detail ;— that absence of any full 
and systematic description of the formation and 
regulation of Christian Communities, that has 
been just noticed. For we may plainly infer, 
from this very circumstance, the design of the 
Holy Spirit, that those details, concerning which 
no precise directions, accompanied with strict in- 
junctions, are to be found in Scripture, were 
meant to be left to the regulation of each Church, 
in each Age and Country. On any point in 
which it was designed that all Christians should 
be, every where, and at all times, bound as 
strictly as the Jews were to the Levitical Law, we 
may fairly conclude they would have received 
directions no less precise, and descriptions no 
It 3 minute, than had been afforded to the Jews. 
It has often occurred to my mind that importance 

+i ^• r t i of noti c in & 

l ne generality of even studious readers the omis- 

(. f^ . n • sionsinany 

are apt, for want of sufficient reflection, work - 
to fail of drawing such important inferences as 
they often might, from the omissions occurring 
in any work they are perusing; — from its not 
containing such and such things relative to the 
subject treated of. There are many cases in 
which the non-insertion of some particulars 
which, under other circumstances, we might 
have calculated on meeting with, in a certain 
book, will be hardly less instructive than the 
things we do meet with. 
7 



Procedure of the Disciples. [Essay IT. 

And this is much more especially the case 
when we are studying works which we believe 
to have been composed under divine guidance. 
For, in the case of more human compositions, 
one may conceive an author to have left out 
some important circumstances, either through 
error of judgment, or inadvertency, or from 
having written merely for the use of a particular 
class of readers in his own time and country, 
without any thought of what might be neccessary 
information for persons at a distance and in after- 
ages ; but we cannot, of course, attribute to any 
such causes omissions in the inspired Writers. 
writeJsSS ^ n no supposition whatever can we 
faiiy^wlth- account for the omission, by all of them? 
JeJordi f ng m °f many points which they do omit, and 
Sis. of their scanty and slight mention of 
others, except by considering them as withheld 
by the express design and will (whether com- 
municated to each of them or not) of their Hea- 
venly Master, restraining them from committing 
to writing many things which, naturally, some 
or other of them, at least, would not have failed 
so to record. 

I have set forth accordingly, in a distinct 
Treatise, x these views respecting the Omissions 
in the Sacred Books of the New Testament, 
and the important inferences thence to be de- 
duced. We seek in vain there for many things 

x Essay VI., First Series. See Appendix, Note, (D.) 



§ 8.] under tlieir Lord's Directions. 77 

which, humanly speaking, we should have most 
surely calculated on finding. " No such thing 
is to be found in our Scriptures as a Catechism, 
or regular Elementary Introduction to the Chris- 
tian Religion ; nor do they furnish us with any 
thing of the nature of a systematic Creed, set of 
Articles, Confession of Faith, or by whatever 
other name one may designate a regular, com- 
plete Compendium of Christian doctrines : nor, 
again, do they supply us with a Liturgy for or- 
dinary Public Worship, or with Forms for ad- 
ministering the Sacraments, or for conferring 
Holy Orders ; nor do they even give any 
precise directions as to these and other ecclesi- 
astical matters ; — any thing that at all corres- 
ponds to a Rubric, or set of Canons." 

Now these omissions present, — as I have, in 
that Treatise, endeavoured to show, — a com- 
plete moral demonstration that the Apostles 
and their followers must have been superna- 
tural!]) withheld from recording great part of the 
institutions, instructions, and regulations, which 
must, in point of fact, have proceeded from 
them; — withheld, onpurpose that other Churches, 
in other Ages and Regions, might not be led to 
consider themselves bound to adhere to seve- 
ral formularies, customs, and rules, that were 
of local and temporary appointment ; but 
might be left to their own discretion in matters 



78 Christian Churches. [Essay II. 

in which it seemed best to divine wisdom that 
they should be so left. y 

christian § 9. With respect to one class of 
derived those points that have been alluded to> 

from Syna- 1 

gogues. it is probable that one cause — humanly 
speaking — why we find in the Sacred Books less 
information concerning the Christian Ministry 
and the Constitution of Church-Governments 
than we otherwise migh have found, is that 
these institutions had less of novelty than some 
would at first sight suppose, and that many 
portions of them did not wholly originate with 
the Apostles. It appears highly probable — I 
might say morally certain 21 — that wherever a 
Jewish Synagogue existed that was brought, — 
the whole or the chief part of it, — to embrace 
the Gospel, the Apostles did not, there, so much 
form a Christian Church, (or Congregation;* 
Ecclesia,) as make an existing Congregation 
Christian; by introducing the Christian Sa- 



i' See Appendix, Note (D.) 

a See Lightfoot, Appendix, Note (C.) 

a The word " Congregation" as it stands in our Version of 
the Old Testament, (and it is one of very frequent occurrence 
in the Books of Moses,) is found to correspond, in the Septuagint, 
which was familiar to the New-Testament Writers, to Ecclesia ; 
the word which, in our Version of these last, is always ren- 
dered — not "Congregation," but "Church." This, or its equiv- 
alent " Kirk," is probably no other than " circle ;" i. e. Assembly, 
Ecclesia. 



5 9.] derived from Synagogues. 79 

craments and Worship, and establishing what- 
ever regulations were requisite for the newly- 
adopted Faith; leaving the machinery (if I 
may so speak) of government, unchanged; the 
Rulers of Synagogues, Elders, and other Officers 
(whether spiritual or ecclesiastical, or both) 
being already provided in the existing institu- 
tions. And it is likely, that several of the earliest 
Christian Churches did originate in this way ; 
that is, that they were converted synagogues ; 
which became Christian Churches as soon as the 
members, or the main part of the members, 
acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah. 

The attempt to effect this conversion Precedence 

1 allowed to 

of a Jewish Synagogue into a Christian the Jews - 
Church, seems always to have been made, in the 
first instance, in every place where there was an 
opening for it. Even after the call of the idola- 
trous Gentiles, it appears plainly to have been 
the practice of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, b 

fe These seem to be the first who were employed in con- 
verting the idolatrous Gentiles to Christianity,* and their 
first considerable harvest among these seems to have been 
at Antioch in Pisidia, as may be seen by any one who at- 
tentively reads the 13th Chapter of Acts. Peter was sent to 
Cornelius, a " devout " Gentile ; — one of those who had re- 
nounced idolatry and frequented the Synagogues. And these 
seem to have been regarded by him as in an especial manner 



See Harrington's Miscellanea Sacra. 

7* 



80 Christian Churches. [Essay II » 

when they came to any city in which there was 
a Synagogue, to go thither first and deliver their 
sacred message to the Jews and "devout (or 
proselyte) Gentiles;" — according to their own 
expression, (Acts xiii. 16,) to the " men of Is- 
rael and those that feared God :" adding, that 
" it was necessary that the Word of God should 
first be preached to them." 

And when they founded a Church in any of 
those cities in which (and such were, probably, 
a very large majority) there was no Jewish 
Synagogue that received the Gospel, it is likely 
they would still conform, in a great measure, to 
the same model. 

Sm need" But though, as has been said, the 
convIrted° r circumstance just mentioned was pro- 
logues, bably the cause — humanly speaking — 
why some particulars are not recorded in our 
existing Sacred Books, which otherwise we 
might have found there, still, it does seem to 
me perfectly incredible on any supposition but 
that of supernatural interference, that neither 

bis particular charge. His Epistles appear to have been 
addressed to them ; as may be seen both by the general ten- 
or of his expressions, * and especially in the opening address; 
which is not (as would appear from our Version) to the dis- 
persed Jews, but to the " Sojourners of the dispersion 
irapemdfinovg Siaaxopag, i. e. the devout Gentiles living among 
the "Dispersion." 



* See Hinds's History, vol. ii. 



§ 9.] derived from Synagogues. 81 

the Apostles nor any of their many followers 
should have committed to writing any of the 
multitude of particulars which we do not find 
in Scripture, and concerning which we are per- 
fectly certain the Apostles did give instruc- 
tions relative to Church-Government, the 
Christian Ministry, and Public-Worship. 
When we consider how large a proportion of 
the Churches and of the ministers, were Gen- 
tiles, and strangers to the constitution of Jewish 
Synagogues, and also how much was introduced 
that was new and strange, even to Jewish Chris- 
tians (as well as highly important)— the Chris- 
tian Sacraments being wholly new, and the 
Prayers in a great measure so — we may judge 
how great a number of particular directions 
must have been indispensably necessary for all ; 
directions which it would have been natural, 
humanly speaking, for the Apostles or their at- 
tendants to have recorded in writing ; and which, 
if this had not been done, would naturally have 
been so recorded by the persons to whom they 
were delivered. " Suppose we could make out 
the possibility or probability, of Paul's having 
left no Creed, Catechism, or Canons, why have 
we none from the pen of Luke, or of Mark? 
Suppose this also explained, why did not John 
or Peter supply the deficiency ? And why again 
did none of the numerous Bishops and Presby- 
ters whom they ordained, undertake the work 



82 Christian Churches, <SfC. [Essay II. 

under their direction?" "And that there is 
nothing in the Christian Religion considered in 
itself, that stands in the way of such a proce- 
dure, is plain from the number of works of 
this description which have appeared from the 
earliest times, {after the age of inspiration) down 
to the present; from the writings entitled the 
' Apostles' Creed,' and the 'Apostolical Con- 
stitutions,' &c. (compositions of uncertain au- 
thors, and, amidst the variety of opinions re- 
specting them, never regarded as Scripture) 
down to the modern Formularies and Confes- 
sions of Faith. Nor again can it be said that 
there was any thing in the founders of the reli- 
gion, any more than in the religion itself, which, 
humanly speaking, should seem likely to pre- 
clude them from transmitting to us such com- 
positions. On the contrary, the Apostles, and 
the rest of the earlier preachers of Christianity, 
were brought up Jews ; accustomed in their 
earliest notions of religion, to refer to the 
Books of the Law, as containing precise state- 
ments of their Belief, and most minute di- 
rections as to religious Worship and Ceremo- 
nies. So that to give complete and regu- 
lar instructions as to the character and 
the requisitions of the new Religion as it 
would have been natural, for any one, was 

c Essay on Omissions, p. 19. 



} 10.] Records relating to Church-government, scanty. 83 

more especially to be expected of these 
men." d 

We are left then, and indeed unavoidably 
led, to the conclusion, that in respect of these 
points the Apostles and their followers were, 
during the age of inspiration, supernatural^ 
withheld from recording those circumstantial 
details which were not intended by divine Pro- 
vidence to be absolutely binding on all Churches, 
in every Age and Country, but were meant to 
be left to the discretion of each particular 
Church. e 



§ 10. The absence of such detailed scanty re- 

n , . . x , cords of 

descriptions and instructions as 1 nave what relates 

. . . . to Church 

been adverting to, is the more striking govem- 
when contrasted with the earnest and copious, of 

moral and 

frequent inculcations we do meet with, doctrinal 

1 instruc- 

of the great fundamental Gospel-doc- tions - 
trines and moral duties, which are dwelt upon 
in so many passages, both generally, and in re- 
ference to various classes of persons, and va- 
rious occasions. Our sacred writers have not 
recorded their Creeds,— their Catechisms for 
the elementary instruction of converts, — their 
forms of Public Prayer and Psalmody, — or their 

d Essay on Omissions, pp. 7, 8. 

e See some valuable remarks on this subject, in a pamphlet by 
Dean Hoare, entitled " Letters on the Tendency and Principles 
advocated in the ' Tracts for the Times.' " 



84 Records relating to Church-government, scanty. [Essay II. 

modes of administering the Sacraments ; — they 
have not even described the posture in which the 
Eucharist was received, or the use of leavened 
or unleavened bread ; (two points on which, in 
after-ages, bitter controversies were raised,) 
nor many other things which we are certain 
Paul (as well as the other Apostles) " set in or- 
der, when he came" to each Church, 
ciear re- But, on the other hand, it is plainly 
fact that recorded that they did establish Church- 
churches es wherever they introduced the Gos- 

were found- " 

ed - pel; that they "ordained Elders in 

every city," and that the Apostles again dele- 
gated that office to others ; that they did ad- 
minister the rite of Baptism to their converts ; 
and that they celebrated the communion of the 
Lord's Supper. And besides the general prin- 
ciples of Christian Faith and Morality which 
they sedulously set forth, they have recorded 
the most earnest exhortations to avoid " con- 
fusion'^ in their public worship ; to do " all 
things decently and in order;" to " let all things 
be done to edifying," and not for vain-glorious 
display; they inculcate the duty of Christians 
"assembling themselves together" for joint 
worship f they record distinctly the solemn 
sanction given to a Christian Community ; they 
inculcate 11 due reverence and obedience to those 

f 1 Cor. and 1 Tim. e Heb. x. 25. 

h See Hebrews and Timothy. 



$ 11.] Remarkable Circumstances in some recordedDetails. 85 

that " bear rule" in such a Community, with cen- 
sure of such as walk " disorderly" and " cause 
divisions ;" and they dwell earnestly on the care 
with which Christian Ministers, both male and 
female, should be selected, and on the zeal, and 
discretion, and blameless life required in them, 
and on their solemn obligation to " exhort, re- 
buke, and admonish :" yet with all this, they 
do not record even the number of distinct Or- 
ders of them, or the functions appropriated to 
each, or the degree, and kind, and mode of 
control they exercised in the Churches. 

While the principles, in short, are Principles 

, , «ii i • i which are 

clearly recognised, and strongly mcul- to guide 

l i ■ . ^1 • • r* ' ' Christian 

cated, which Christian Communities societies 

clearly re- 

and individual members of them are to corded, 
keep in mind and act upon, with a view to the 
great objects for which these Communities were 
established, the precise modes in which these ob- 
jects are, in each case, to be promoted, are left, 
— one can hardly doubt, studiously left — unde- 
fined. 

§ 11. Many of the omissions I have hJ^JJJE 
alluded to, will appear even the more ^"matte^s 
striking in proportion as we contemplate which e the 
with the more minute attention each do^reS. 
part of the sacred narrative. For instance, it is 
worth remarking that the matters concerning 
which the Apostle Paul's Epistles do contain 



86 Remarkable Circumstances. [Essay II. 

the most detailed directions, are most of them 
precisely those which every one perceives to 
have relation only to the times in which he 
wrote ; such as the eating or abstaining from 
" meats offered to idols," and the use and abuse 
of supernatural gifts. He was left, it should 
seem, unrestrained in recording- — and hence he 
does record, — particular directions in those cases 
where there was no danger of those his directions 
beingappliedin all Ages and Countries, as bind- 
ing on every Church for ever. Again, almost 
every attentive reader must have been struck 
with the circumstance, that there is no such 
description on record of the first appointment of 
the higher Orders of Christian Ministers as there 
is (in Acts vi.) of the ordination of the inferior 
Class, the Deacons. And this considerrtion 
alone would lead a reflecting mind to conclude, 
or at least strongly suspect, that the particular 
notice of this appointment of Deacons is inci- 
dental only, and that probably there would have 
been as little said of these, as of the Presbyters, 
but for the circumstance of the extraordinary 
effect produced by two of these Deacons, Ste- 
phen and Philip, as preachers : the narrative of 
their appointment being a natural, and almost 
necessary, introduction to that of two most im- 
portant events, the greatoutbreak of persecution 
consequent on Stephen's martyrdom (which 
seems to have led, through the dispersion of the 



J 11.] in some recorded Details. 87 

Disciples, to the founding of the first purely Gen- 
tile Church, at Antioch),* and the conversion of 
Samaria. 

But this conclusion is greatly ™* co s n e s ven 
strengthened, when, on a closer exam- ^pi^tS.' 1 
ination, we find reason to be convinced that 
these, so-called, first seven Deacons, who are 
usually assumed (for I never met with even any 
attempt at proof,) to have been the first that ever 
held such an office, were, in reality, only the 
first Grecian k Deacons, and that there were 
Hebrew Deacons before. 

The following extract from an able Article in 
the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana on Ecclesi- 
astical History, will make this point, I think, 
perfectl} r clear. 

"Meanwhile within the Church itself were 
displayed some slight symptoms of discontent, 
which deserve to be noticed particularly, on 
account of the measure to which they gave rise. 
The complaint is called ' a murmuring of the 
Grecians (or foreign Jews) against the Hebrews, 
(or native Jews,) because their widows were 
neglected in the daily ministration.' Who these 



* See Encyclop. Metrop. (Ecclesiastical History) on the 
designation of Christians first given to the Disciples at that 
place. 

k Hellenist, or "Grecian," is the term constantly used for the 
Jews who used the Greek language ; as distinguished from Hellen, 
a Greek or Gentile by nation. 

8 



88 Remarkable Circumstances [Essay II. 

widows probably were has already been sug- 
gested ; and if the suggestion, that they were 
deaconesses, be admitted, the grounds of the 
complaint may be readily surmised. As the 
greater share of duty would at this time devolve 
on the Hebrew widows or deaconesses, they 
might have been paid more liberally, as their 
services seemed to require ; and hence the dis- 
content. 

" This, it is true, supposes that the order 
of deacons and deaconesses already existed, 
and may seem at first to contradict the state- 
ment of St. Luke, that in consequence of this 
murmuring, deacons were appointed. It does 
not however really contradict it ; for evident- 
ly some dispensers there must have been, and 
if so, either the Apostles must have officia- 
ted as deacons, or special deacons there must 
have been, by whatever name they went. 
That the Apostles did not officiate, is plain 
from the tenor of the narrative, which indi- 
cates that the appeal was made to them, and 
that they excused themselves from presiding 
personally at the * ministration,' (as was 
probably desired by the discontented party,) 
alleging that it was incompatible with their 
proper duties. * It is not reason that we should 
leave the ivord of God, and serve tables.' This 
very assertion, then, is proof certain that they 
did not officiate. Again, on reading over the 



$ 11.] in some recorded Details. 89 

names of the seven deacons, we find them all 
of the Grecian or Hellenistic party ; Stephen, 
Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, 
and Nicolas, the last of" whom is expressly 
described as " a proselyte of Antioch." Now 
this surely would have produced, in turn, a 
murmuring of the Hebrews against the Gre- 
cians, unless they had already had some in 
office interested in looking after their rights. 
With these presumptions in favour of a 
previous appointment of deacons, it would 
seem then, that these seven were added to 
the former number, because of the com- 
plaint. 

" All that is thus far intimated of their office 
is, that they were employed in the daily distri- 
bution of the alms and the stipends due from the 
public fund. Whether, even at the first, their 
duties were limited to this department of service, 
may be reasonably doubted. Of this portion of 
their duties we are now informed ; obviously, 
because to the unsatisfactory mode in which this 
had been hitherto performed it was owing, that 
the new appointment took place, and that the 
subject was noticed at all. It is, however, by 
no means improbable, that the young men who 
carried out the dead bodies of Ananias and 
Sapphira, and who are described as ' ready' in 
attendance, were of the same order ; in other 
words, deacons by office, if not by name. What 



90 Remarkable Circumstances [Essay II. 

may serve to confirm this view of it is, the 
Opposition between what would seem to have 
been their original title, and another order 
in the Church. They are called 'juniors' 
and 'young men,' (vewtsqoi, veaviaxoi,) terms 
so strongly opposed to presbyters or elders 
as to incline one at the first glance to con- 
sider them as expressive of the two orders of 
the ministry, the seniors and the juniors, (the 
irQEo@TuT6(}oi, di&xovot, and the vemsQOi di&ttovoi ;\ 
the two orders, in short, which at length receiv- 
ed the fixed and perpetual titles of bresbyters 
and deacons. 

"Accordingly, there is no just ground for 
supposing, that when the same term deacon 
occurs in the Epistles of St. Paul, a different 
order of men is intended : first, because an 
office may preserve its original name long after 
the duties originally attached to it have been 
changed; and, secondly, because, whatever 
duties may have been added to the office of 
deacons, it is certain that the duty of attending 
to the poor was for several, centuries attached to 
it. Even after the deacons ceased to hold the 
office of treasurers, and the Bishops began to 
receive the revenues of their respective sees, the 
distribution of that portion which was allotted to 
charity still passed through the hands of the 
deacons. Hence in a still later period, the title 
of cardinal deacon ; and hence, too, the appro- 



J 11.] in some recorded Details. 91 

priation of the term diaconice. to those Churches 
wherein alms used to be collected and distri- 
buted to the poor. 

" Not that it is possible to point out, with any 
thing like precision, the course of duty which 
belonged to the primitive deacons. That it 
corresponded entirely with that of our present 
order of deacons is very unlikely, whatever 
analogy be allowed from their relative situation 
in the Church. As the Church during the 
greater part of the first century was a shifting, 
and progressive institution, their duties probably 
underwent continual change and modification. 
If we were to be guided, for instance, by the 
office in which we find the ' young men/ 
(veavi'oxot,,} engaged, when the dead bodies of 
Ananias and Sapphira were removed, we should 
say that they performed the business, which 
in the present day would devolve on the inferior 
attendants of our churches. If r again, we were 
to judge of their character from the occasion on 
which we find them acting as stewards of the 
Church fund, a higher station would be doubt- 
less assigned to them, but still, one not more 
nearly connected wilh the ministry of the 
word, nor approaching more to the sphere of 
duty which belongs to our deacons. On the 
other hand, the instances of Stephen and Philip 
prove, that the title was applied to those who 
8* 



92 Remarkable Circumstances. [Essay II. 

were engaged in the higher departments of the 
ministry, although not in the highest. 

" After all, it is most likely that the word 
deacon was originally applied, as its etymology 
suggests, to all the ministers of the Gospel 
establishment. But the Apostles having from 
the first a specific title, it more properly de- 
noted any minister inferior to them, — any, 
however employed in the service of the Church. 
Between these, also, there soon obtained a dis- 
tinction. If we suppose, then, that the seniors f 
or superior class, were distinguished by^ the ob- 
vious title of Elder deacons, (ngsagvisgov di&xovoi) 
the generic and unappropriated term * deacon 1 
would devolve on the remaining class. And 
thus the present Order in the Church, to which 
that name is applied, may be truly asserted 
to be deacons in the apostolical and primi- 
tive sense of the word ; and yet, nevertheless, 
much may be said about deacons, both 
in the New Testament and in the writings 
of the early fathers, which will not apply to 
them." 

If any one should be disposed to think it 
a question of small moment whether Stephen 
and his companions were or were not the first 
Deacons ever appointed, let him consider that, 
however unimportant in itself, it is one which 
throws much additional light on the subject now 
before us. We not only find few and scanty 



( 12.] Internal Evidence from the Views above taken. 93 

records of those details of the Church-govern- 
ment established by the Aposiles, which, if 
they had designed to leave a model absolutely 
binding on all Christians for ever, we might 
have expected to find fully and clearly particu- 
larized, but also we find that a part even of 
what the inspired writers do record, is recorded 
incidentally only, for the elucidation of the rest 
of the narrative ; and not in pursuance of any 
design to give a detailed statement of such par- 
ticulars. Thus a further confirmation is fur- 
nished of the view that has been taken ; viz. that 
it was the plan of the Sacred Writers to lay 
down clearly the principles on which Christian 
Churches were to be formed and governed, 
leaving the mode of application of those princi- 
ples undetermined and discretionary. 

§ 12. Now what did the Holy Spirit internal 
design us to learn from all this ? In the Gospel 
the first place " he that hath ears to from "the 

1 m above 

hear," may draw from it, as has been vicws - 
already observed, a strong internal evidence of 
the genuineness and of the inspired character of 
our Sacred Books ; inasmuch as they do not con- 
tain what would surely have been found in the 
works of men (whether impostors or sincere) 
left to themselves to record whatever seemed 
interesting and important. 

And this point of evidence presents itself to 



94 Internal Evidence, <fyc. Essay II. 

the mind at once, before we have even begun to 
inquire into the particular object proposed in the 
omission ; because we may be sure, in this 
case, that what did not come from Man must 
have come from God. 1 
ofessea- But besides this we may fairly in- 

tials a (lis- _ _ * . . - , . . . 7 . 

tinct reve- ter I think that what is essential is to 

lation in i i • i i « • 

Scripture be found clearlv laid down in Scnp- 

to be ex- 1,1 • 1 • 1 

pected. ture ; and that those points which are 
either wholly passed over in silence (when they 
are such that we are certain from the nature of 
the case, the Apostles must have given some 
directions relative to them) or are slightly men- 
tioned, imperfectly described, and incidentally 
alluded to, must belong to the class of things 
either altogether indifferent, or so far non-essen- 
tial in their character that " it is not necessary'* 
(as our 34th Article expresses it,) " they should 
be in all places one and utterly alike ;" — such in 
short that divine wisdom judged it best they 
should be left to the discretion of each Church 
in each Age and Country,™ and should be de- 
termined according to the principles which had 
been distinctly laid down by divine authority ; 
while the application of those principles in par- 
ticular cases, was left (as is the case with our 
moral conduct also) n to the responsible judg- 
ment of Man. 

1 See Appendix, Note (E). 

m See Appendix, Note (F.) 

a - Essay on Abolition of Law. Second Series,. 



$ 13.] Things enjoined, excluded, and left at large. 95 

It was designed in short that a Kglf"* 
Churchshouldhave (as our 34th Article §1 d™£ 
expresses it) "authority to ordain, change, and 
abolish ceremonies and rites resting on Man's 
authority only:" (this, be it observed, including 
things which may have been enjoined by the 
Apostles to those among whom they were living, -audi 
which, to those persons, had a divine authority ; but 
which are not recorded by the sacred writers as 
enjoined universally) "so that all things be done 
to edifying:" but that "as no Church ought to 
decree any thing against Holy Writ, so besides 
the same ought it not to enforce the belief of 
any thing as necessary to salvation." 

§ 13. And we may also infer very ™"=[ s en " 
clearly from an attentive and candid 22K; a?d 
survey of the Sacred Writings, not only IRS^** 
that some things were intended to be absolutely 
enjoined as essential, and others left to the dis- 
cretion of the rulers of each Church, but also 
that some things, again, were absolutely exclu- 
ded, as inconsistent with the character of a 
Christian Community. 

It is very important therefore, and, to a dili- 
gent, and reflective, and unprejudiced reader, not 
difficult, — by observing that the Sacred Writers 
have omitted, and what they have mentioned, 
and in what manner they have mentioned each, 
to form in his mind distinctly the three classes 



96 Things enjoined^ excluded, and left at large. [Essay II. 
Points es- just alluded to : viz. 1st, of things es- 

senlial. in- , ... , .... 

compatible, sential to Christianity, and enjoined as 

and xndif- J " 

ferent. universally requisite ; 2dly, those left 
to the discretion of the governors of each Church ; 
and 3dly, those excluded as inconsistent with the 
character of the Gospel-religion. 

These last points are not least deserving of a 
careful examination; especially on account of 
the misconceptions relative to them, that have 
prevailed and still prevail, in a large portion of 
the Christian World. It would lead me too far 
from the subject now immediately under con- 
sideration, to enter into a full examination of all 
the features that are to be found in most reli- 
gions except the Christian, and which might 
have been expected to appear in that, supposing 
it of human origin ; but which are expressly 
excluded from it. It may be worth while how- 
ever to advert to a few of the most remarkable. 
wncuonJ 1 The Christian Religion, then, arose, 
b U y C thSse d of De it remembered, among a People who 
state!"™ not on ly looked for a temporal De- 
liverer and Prince in their Messiah, but who had 
been accustomed to the sanction of temporal 
rewards and judgments to the divine Law ;° — 
whose Laws, in religious and in secular matters 
alike, claimed to be an immediate revelation 

See Essay I., 1st. Series: " On the Peculiarities," &c. And 
also Discourse "On National Blessings." 



} 13.] Things enjoined, excluded, and left at targe. 97 

from Heaven — whose civil Rulers were regard- 
ed as delegates from " the Lord their God, who 
was their king," and were enjoined to punish 
with death, as a revolt from the Supreme Civil 
Authority, — as a crime of the character of 
high-treason, — any departure from the prescrib- 
ed religion. It arose in a Nation regarding 
themselves as subjects of a " Kingdom of God" 
that was, emphatically, a kingdom of this 
world : and its most prominent character was its 
being " a Kingdom not of this world ;" it was in 
all respects the very reverse in respect of the 
points just mentioned, of what might have been 
expected, humanly-speaking, from Jew r ish indi- 
viduals, and of what was expected by the Jewish 
Nation ; and it may be added, of what many 
Christians have in every Age laboured to repre- 
sent and to make it. While the mass of his own 
People were seeking "to take Jesus by force to 
make Him a king" (a procedure which has 
been, virtually, imitated by a large proportion 
of his professed followers ever since) He Himself 
and his Apostles, uniformly and sedulously, both 
in their precepts, and in their conduct, rejected 
as alien from the character of the Gospel, all 
employment of secular coercion in behalf of 
their religion, — all encroachment on " the things 
that be Caesar's ;" and maintained the purely 
spiritual character of that "Kingdom of Hea- 
ven" which they proclaimed. 



98 A Religion without Sacrifice, [Essay II. 

On this, every way most important, point, I 
have treated at large in the first Essay in this 
volume, and also, in the Essay on Persecution 
(3d Series), and the Essays on the Dangers to 
Christianity, (4th Series.) 

tySit'iou § 14 - Moreover the Gospel-religion 
sicrffi u £, was introduced by men, and among 
Temple. men — whether Jews or G entiles, — who 
had never heard of or conceived such a thing as 
a religion without a Sacrificing Priest, without 
Altars for Sacrifice, — without Sacrifices them- 
selves, — without either a Temple, or at least 
some High Place, Grove, or other sacred spot 
answering to a Temple ; — some place, that is, 
in which the Deity worshipped was supposed 
more especially to dwell.* 

The Apostles preached, for the first time — the 
first both to Jew and Gentile — a religion quite 
opposite in all these respects to all that had ever 
been heard of before : — a religion without any 
Sacrifice but that offered up by its Founder in 
his own person ; — without any Sacrificing Priest 
(Hiereus)^ except Him, the great and true High 
Priest, 1 * and consequently with no Priest (in that 

P Hence the name of Nods from mistv, u to dwell." See Hinds's 
" Three Temples." 

iSee Discourse " On the Christian Priesthood," appended to 
Bampton Lectures. 

* Hebrews, ch. iv. 



14.] Altar, Priest, or Temple. 99 

sense) on Earth ; except so far as every one 
of the worshippers was required to present him- 
self as a " living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable to 
God ;" s and a religion without any Temple, 
except the collected Congregation of the Wor- 
shippers themselves.* 

Let any one but contemplate the striking 
contrast, between the confined — the local cha- 
racter,— -of the Mosaic system, and the cha- 
racter of boundless extension stamped on the 
Gospel of Christ. " In the place which the 
Lord shall choose" (says Moses") " to set his 
Name therein, there shalt thou offer thy Sacri- 
fices." "The hour cometh" (says Jesus*) 
" when men shall neither on this mountain, 
nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father;" . -, 
. . . " wheresoever two or three are gathered to- 
gether in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them."y "In his Temple" (says the Psalmist;* 
i. e. in his temple at Jerusalem) "doth every 
one speak of his glory :"..... " there will I" 
(Jehovah) " dwell, for I have a delight therein :" 
" Ye are the Temjile" (says the Apostle 

■ Rom. xii. This offering the Apostle calls Ovaiav facrav, " a 
living Sacrifice," as distinguished from the slain animals offered 
tip in other religions ; and also \oyixr) \arpeia, " a reasonable (i. e. 
rational) service," as opposed to the irrational animals slain on 
the altars. 

1 I have treated of this point in one of a volume of Discourses de- 
livered in Dublin. 

w Deut. xii. x John iv. >' Matt, xviii. x Ps. xxix» 

9 



100 A Religion without Sacrifice. [Essay II. 

Paul) "of the Holy Ghost, which duelleth in 
you." a 
christian]- Now all this is deserving of attentive 

ty such a ° 

E e wou?d reflection, both as important in reference 
Ji p sed! ve nor t0 a r] *8 nt knowledge of the true cha- 
succeJed Ve racter of the religion of the Gospel, and 
gathig!° pa also as furnishing a strong internal evi- 
dence as to its origin. For not only is it incon- 
ceivable that any impostor or enthusiast would 
have ever devised or dreamed of any thing both 
so strange, and so unacceptable, as must have 
seemed, in those days, a religion without Priest, 
Altar, Sacrifice, or Temple, (in the sense in 
which men had always been accustomed to 
them ;) but also it is no less incredible that any 
persons unaided by miraculous powers, should 
have succeeded — as the Apostles did — in pro- 
pagating such a religion, 
sacrifices, But what is most to our present pur- 

and sacri- . . , . ~ , 

firing pose to remark, is, that the Sacred 

Priests, ex- . . 

dudtdfrom Writers did not omit the mention of 

Christian- 
ity- these things, and leave it to the discre- 
tion of each Church to introduce them or not ; but 
they plainly appear to have distinctly excluded 
them. It is not that they made little or no men- 
tion of Temples, Sacrifices, and sacrificing 
Priests ; they mention them, and allude to them, 
perpetually ; as existing, in the ordinary sense 
of the terms, among the Jews, and also among 

a 1 Cor. iii. 



$ 14.] Altar, Priest, or Temple. 101 

the Pagans ; and again, they also perpetually 
mention and allude to them in reference to 
the religion of the Gospel, invariably, and ma- 
nifestly, in a different sense, Jesus Christ as the 
Christian Priest, and Christian Sacrifice, — 
Christians themselves as " living Sacrifices," — 
the sacrifice of beneficence to the Poor, b — the 
Temple composed of the Christian Worshippers 
themselves ; who are exhorted to " build up" 
(or edify, oly.odoueZv} one another, as "living 
stones" of the Temple of the Holy Ghost ; — 
all these are spoken of and alluded to continu- 
ally; while, in the primary and customary sense, 
the same terms are perpetually used by the same 
writers, in reference to the Jewish and to the 
Pagan religions, and never to the Christian. 

I cannot well conceive any proof more com- 
plete than is here afforded, that Christ and his 
Apostles intended distinctly to exclude and for- 
bid, as inconsistent with his religion, those things 
which I have been speaking of. It being the 
natural and inherent office of any Community 
to make bye-laws for its own regulation, where 
not restricted by some higher Authority, these 
points are precisely those which come under 
that restriction ; being distinctly excluded by 
the Founder and Supreme Governor of the Uni- 

b " To do good and to distribute, forget not, fur with such sacrifv 
ces, (Qwtatj.) God is well pleased." 
* 1 Peter ii. 5, &c. 



102 A Religion without Sacrifice, 6fc. [Essay If. 

versal Church, is inconsistent with the charac^ 

ter of his religion. 

unreason*- It is not a little remarkable, there- 

ble restric- c i i • i 

tion, and tore,-^-tbougn i,n other matters also ex- 

tinreasona- . , . 

bie exten- penence shows the liability of men to 

sion of * J 

church. maintain at once opposite errors, — 

powers, ad- l l » 

thT^ame tnat ^ YeT y P erSOnS who are for re- 
persons, stricting within the narrowest lirnits,-^- 
or rather, indeed,, annulling altogether,— the 
natural right of a Community to make and 
alter bye-laws in matters not determined by a 
superior authority, and who deny that any 
Church is at liberty to depart, even in matters 
left wholly undecided in Scripture, from the 
supposed, — or even conjectured — practice of 
the Apostles, these very persons are found ad- 
vocating the introduction into Christianity of 
practices and institutions not only unauthorized, 
but plainly excluded, by its inspired promulga- 
tors ; — such as Sacrifices and sacrificing Priests ; 
thus, at once, denying the rights which do be- 
long to a Christian Community, and asserting 
those which do not ; at once fettering the Church 
by a supposed obligation to conform strictly to 
some supposed precedents of antiquity, and 
boldly casting off the obligation to adhere to the 
plainest injunctions of God's written Word. 
" Full well do ye reject the commandment of 
God, that ye may keep your own tradition."* 1 

d Mark vii. 9. 



} 15.] No Head on Earth of the Church Universal. 103 

§ 15. Among the things excluded JSaftS 
from the Christian system, we are ^"spi- 
fully authorized to inchde all subjec- onEaitL 
tion of the Christian World, permanently, 
and from generation to generation, to some one 
Spiritual Ruler (whether an individual man or 
a Church) the delegate, representative and vice- 
gerent of Christ ; whose authority should be 
binding on the conscience of all, and decisive 
on every point of faith. Jesus Himself, who 
told his Disciples that it was " expedient for 
them that He should go away, that He might 
send them another Comforter, who should abide 
with them for ever," could not possibly have 
failed, had such been his design, to refer them 
to the man, or Body of men, who should, in 
perpetual succession, be the depositary of this 
divine consolation and supremacy. And it is 
wholly incredible that He Himself should be 
perpetually spoken of and alluded to as the 
Head of his Church, without any reference to 
any supreme Head on Earth, as fully represent- 
ing Him and bearing universal rule in his name, 
— whether Peter or any other Apostle, or any 
successor of one of these, — this, I say, is utterly 
incredible, supposing the Apostles or their Mas- 
ter had really designed that there should be for 
the universal Church any institution answering 
to the oracle of God under the Old Dispensation, 
at the Tabernacle or the Temple. 
9* 



104 No Head on Earth Essay II. 

The mira- The Apostle Paul, in speaking of 
signs of an miracles as " the signs of an Apostle," 

Apostle re- ° L 

quisite for evidently implies that no one not pos- 

any claim- J I I 

toUcfi apos ~ sessing such miraculous gifts as his, 6 
power. m uch less, without possessing any at all, 
— could be entitled to be regarded as even on a 
level with the Apostles ; yet he does not, by 
virtue of that his high office, claim for himself, 
or allow to Peter or any other, supreme rule 
over all the Churches/ And while he claims 
and exercises the right to decide authoritatively 
on points of faith and of practice on which he 
had received express revelations, he does not 
leave his converts any injunction to apply, here- 
after, when he shall be removed from them, to 
the Bishop, or Rulers of any other Church, for 
such decisions ; or to any kind of permanent 
living Oracle to dictate to all Christians in all 
Ages. Nor does he even ever hint at any sub- 
jection of one Church to another, singly, or to 
any number of others collectively ;—4o that of 
Jerusalem, for instance, or of Rome ; or to any 
kind of general Council. 
No one It appears plainly from the sacred 

Communi- . . . , . ~. , 

ty on Earth narrative, that though the many Church- 



power over es which the Apostles founded were 

nil Chris- r 

tians. branches of one Spiritual Brotherhood, 

of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the Heavenly 
Head, — though there was "one Lord, one Faith, 

* 1 Cor. xiv. 18. f Gal. ii. 7— 9. 



$15.] of the Church Universal 105 

one Baptism," for all of them, yet they were 
each a distinct, independent community on 
Earth, united by the common principles on 
which they were founded, and by their mutual 
agreement, affection, and respect ; but not hav- 
ing any one recognised Head on Earth, or ac- 
knowledging any sovereignty of one of these So- 
cieties over others.^ 

And as for— so-called-^General General 

,-_ ., „ , . Councils 

Councils, we nnd not even any mention not autho- 

c i 11 i rized b y 

or them, or allusion to any such expe- scripture,. 
dient. The pretended first Council, at Jeru- 
salem, does seem to me h a most extraordinary 
chimera, without any warrant whatever from 
Sacred History. We find in, the narrative, lhat 
certain persons, coming from Jerusalem to An- 
tioch, endeavoured to impose on the Gentile con- 
verts the yoke of the Mosaic Law ; pretend- 
ing — as appears plainly from the context Wto 
have the sanction of the Apostles for this. 
Nothing could be more natural than the step 
which was thereupon taken, — to send a depu- 
tation to Jerusalem, to inquire whether these 
pretensions were well founded. The Apostles,. 

£ Generally speaking, the Apostles appear to have established a 
distinct Church in each considerable city; .so that there were seve- 
ral even in a single Province ; as for instance, in Macedonia, those 
of Philippi, Thessalonica, Bereea, Amphipolis, &c. ;. and the like in 
the Province of Achaia, and elsewhere. 

h See Burnet on Article 21". 

* Acts xv. 24. 



106 No Head on Earth [Essay II. 

in the midst of an Assembly of the Elders (or 
Clergy, as they would now be called) of Jerusa- 
lem, decided that no such burden ought to be 
imposed, and that their pretended sanction had 
not been giveu. The Church at Jerusalem, 
even independently of the Apostles, had of 
course, power to decide this last point ; i. e. to 
declare the fact whether they had or had not 
given the pretended sanction : and the Apostles, 
confessedly, had plenary power to declare the 
will of the Lord Jesus. And the deputation, 
Pretended accordingly, retired satisfied. There is 

first general i i r 

council, no hint, throughout, of any summons to 

not of that ° ' % J 

character, the several Churches in Judea and 
Galilee, in Samaria, Cyprus, C}^rene, &c. to 
send deputations, as to a general Council ; nor 
any assumption of a right in the Churchot Jeru- 
salem, as such, to govern the rest, or to de- 
cide on points of faith, 
ordination It is worth remarking also, that, as if 

of Saul and .. . . 

Barnabus. on purpose toguard against the assump- 
tion, which might, not unnaturally, have taken 
place, of some supremacy — such as no Church 
was designed to enjoy, — on the part of Jerusa- 
lem, the fountain-head of the religion, it was by 
the special appointment of the Holy Spirit that Saul 
and Barnabas were ordainedto the very highest 
office, the Apostleship, not by the hands of the 
other Apostles, or of any person at Jerusalem, but 
by the Elders ofAntioch. This would have been 



$ 15.] of the Church Univcrscl. 107 

the less remarkable had no human ordination at 
all taken place, but merely a special immediate 
appointment of them by divine revelation. But 
the command given was, " separate me .... let 
them go." k Some reason for such a procedure 
there must have been; and it does seem proba- 
ble that it was designed for the very purpose 
(among others) of impressing on men's minds 
the independence and equality of the several 
Churches on Earth. 

On the whole, then, considering in ^5™^^ 
addition to all these circumstances, the JSfd to 
number and the variety of the Epistles p^'meVu^ 
of Paul, (to say nothing of those of the Juuai, 'had 
other Apostles) and the deep anxiety he aiy? 
manifests for the continuance of his converts in 
the right faith, and his earnest warnings of them 1 
against the dangers to their faith, which he 
foresaw ; and considering also the incalculable 
importance of such an institution (supposing it 
to exist) as a permanent living Oracle and su- 
preme Ruler of the Church, on E,arth ; and 
the necessity of pointing it out so clearly that 
no one could possibly, except through wilful 
blindness and obstinacy, be in any doubt as to 
the place and persons whom the Lord should 
have thus " chosen to cause his name to dwell " 
therein — especially, as a plain reference to 

k Acts xiii. 2, 3. ' Acts xx. 



108 No Head on Earth of the Church Universal. [Essay II. 

this infallible judge, guide, and governor, would 
have been so obvious, easy, short, and decisive 
a mode of guarding against the doubts, errors, 
and dissensions which he so anxiously ap- 
prehended ; considering, I say, all this, it 
does seem to me a perfect moral impossibili- 
ty, that Paul and the other sacred writers 
should have written, as they have done, without 
any mention or allusion to any thing of the 
kind, if it had been a part (and it must have 
been a most essential part, if it were any) of the 
Christian System. They do not merely omit 
all reference to any supreme and infallible Head 
and Oracle of the Universal Church, — to any 
Man or Body as the representative and Vice- 
gerent of Christ, but they omit it in such a 
manner, and under such circumstances, as plain- 
ly to amount to an exclusion. 
mSment It: mav be added that the circum- 
tiin hns " stance of our Lord's having deferred the 
deferred tin Commencement of his Church till after 

Christ's de- i • 7 , • 1 1*1 

panure. his own departure in bodily person, 
from the Earth, seems to have been design- 
ed as a further safeguard against the no- 
tion I have been alluding to. Had He pub- 
licly presided in bodily person subsequently to 
the completion of the Redemption by his death, 
over a Church in Jerusalem or elsewhere, there 
would have been more plausibility in the claim 
to supremacy which might have been set up and 



5 16.] Importance of Points excluded. 109 

admitted, on behalf of that Church, and of his 
own successors in the Government of it. His 
previously withdrawing, made it the more easily 
to be understood that He was to remain the 
spiritual Head in Heaven, of the spiritual Church- 
universal ; and consequently of all particular 
Churches, equally, in all parts of the world. 

§ 16. This therefore, and the other Jj 1 ]^ 09 
pointsjustmentioned, must be regarded exclude(L 
as negatively characteristic of the Christian reli- 
gion, no less than it is positively charaterised by 
those truths and those enactments which the 
inspired Writers lay down as essential. Their 
prohibitions in the one case, are as plain as 
their injunctions in the other. 

There is not indeed any systematic enume- 
ration of the several points that are excluded 
as inconsistent with the character of the reli- 
gion ; answering to the prohibition of Idolatry 
in the Decalogue, the enumeration of forbid- 
den meats, and other such enactments of the 
Levitical Law. But the same may be said 
no less of the affirmative directions also that 
are to be found in the New Testament. The 
fundamental doctrines and the great moral 
principles of the Gospel, are there taught, — 
for wise reasons no doubt, and which I think we 
may in part perceive,™ not in creeds or other 

m See Appendix, Note (G.) 



llO Importance of Points excluded. [Essay II. 

regular formularies, but incidentally, irregularly, 
and often by oblique illusions; less striking 
indeed at first sight than distinct enunciations 
and enactments, but often even the more de- 
cisive and satisfactory from that very cir- 
cumstance; because the Apostles frequently al- 
lude to some truth as not only essential, but in- 
disputably admitted, and familiarly known to be 
essential by those they were addressing.* 
certainty On the whole then, I cannot but think 

with which . , , . , . . , 

things en- an attentive and candid inquirer, who 

joined, for- . 

bidden and brings to the study ot feenpture no ex- 

discrctiona- c • f x 

ry.maybe traordinary learning or acuteness, but 

distinguish- _ u ° 

ed - an unprejudiced and docile mind, may 

ascertain with reasonable certainty, that there 
are points — and what those points are- — which 
are insisted on by our sacred writers as essen- 
tial ; and again, which are excluded as incon- 
sistent with the religion they taught; and again 
that there are many other points," — some of them 
such that the Apostles cannot but have practi*- 
cally decided them in one way or another on 
particular occasions, (such as the mode of ad* 
ministering the Eucharist, and many others) re- 
specting which they have not recorded their de- 
cisions, or made any general enactment to be 
observed in all Ages and Countries. 

And the inference seems to be inevitable, that 

n See Rhetoric, 6th Edition, Part I. ch. 2, $ 4. 



{ 17.] Contrary Errors opposed to the above Principles. Ill 

they purposely left these points to be decided 
in each Age and Country according to the dis- 
cretion of the several Churches, by a careful 
application of the principles laid down by Christ 
and his Apostles. 

§ 17. At variance with what has er ZT*t te 
been now said, and also at variance with JSTthe 
each other, are some opinions which dp°ies. prm " 
are to be found among different classes of 
Christians, in these, as well as in former 
times. The opposite errors (as they ap- 
pear to me to be) of those opinions may in ma- 
ny instances be traced, I conceive in great 
measure, to the same cause ; to the neglect, 
namely, of the distinction — obvious as it is to 
any tolerably attentive reader — which has 
been just noticed, between those things on the 
one hand, which are either plainly declared 
and strictly enjoined, or distinctly excluded, by 
the Sacred Writers, and on the other hand, 
those on which they give no distinct decision, 
injunction, or prohibition; and which I have 
thence concluded they meant to place under the 
jurisdiction of each Church. To the neglect of 
this distinction, and again, to a want of due 
consideration of the character, offices, and 
rights of a Christian Community, may be attri- 
buted, in a great degree, the prevalence of er- 
rors the most opposite to each other. 
10 



112 Contrary Errors opposed to [Essay IL 

Error of There are persons, it is well known, 

those who ^ r n i- <->, 

regard no who from not nnchns: in bcnpture pre- 

Churchor- . . 1 * 

dinances, cise directions, and strict commands, 

&c. asbind- 

iu s- as to the constitution and regulation 

of a Christian Church,— the several Orders of 
Christian Ministers,^ — the distinct functions of 
each, — and. other such details, have adopted 
the conclusion, or at least seem to lean, more 
or less, towards the conclusion, *— that it is a 
matter entirely left to each individual's fancy 
or convenience to join one Christian Society, or 
another, or none at all ;~- to take upon himself, 
or confer on another, the ministerial office, or to 
repudiate altogether any Christian Ministry 
whatever: — to join, or withdraw from, any, or 
every religious Assembly for joint Christian 
worship, according to the suggestion of his in- 
dividual taste : — in short, (for this is what it 
really amounts to when plainly stated) to pro- 
ceed as if the sanction manifestly given by our 
Lord and his Apostles to the establishment of 
Christian Communities, and consequently, to all 
the privileges and powers implied in the very 
nature of a Community, and also the inculcation 
in Scripture of the principles on which Christian 
Churches are to be conducted, were all to go for 
nothing, unless the application of these principles 
to each particular point of the details of Church- 
government, can also be found no less plainly 
laid down in Scripture. 



J 17.] the above Principles. 113 



Now though I would not be : under- Mistake of 

. . - expecting 

stood as insinuating any thins: against precise di- 

° - . O o rections 

the actual morality of life of those who ««.*«* 

J point of 

take such views, I cannot but remark, detaiL 
that their mode of reasoning does seem to me per- 
fectly analogous to that of men who should set 
at nought all the moral principles of. the Gospel, 
and account nothing a sin that is not expressly 
particularized as forbidden, — nothing a duty, 
that is not, in so many words, enjoined. Persons 
who entertain such lax notions as I have been 
alluding to, respecting Church-enactments, 
should be exhorted to reflect care full v on the 
obvious and self-evident, but often-forgotten 
truth — the oftener forgotten, perhaps, in prac- 
tice, from its being self-evident — that right and 
duty are reciprocal; and, consequently, that 
since a Church has a riglu (derived, as has been 
shown, both from the very nature of a Com- 
munity, and from Christ's sanction) to make re- 
gulations, &c. not at variance with Scripture- 
principles, it follows that compliance with such 
regulations must be a duty to the individual 
members of that Church. 

On the other hand, there are some th f s r e ™ r a ° f 
who, in their abhorrence and dread of scripture 
principles and practices subversive of ^Jib^a 
all good order, and tending to anarchy s e S tlon t0 
and to every kind of extravagance, fitment 
have thought, — or at least professed to think, — 



114 Contrary Errors, tyc. [Essay II. 

that we are bound to seek for a distinct authori- 
tative sanction, in the Scriptures, or in some 
other ancient writings,^- •some Tradition in short 
— for each separate'point which we would main- 
tain. They assume that whatever doctrines 
or practices, whatever institutions, whatever re- 
gulations respecting Church-government, we can 
conclude, either with certainty, or with any 
degree of probability, to have been either intro- 
duced by the Apostles, or to have prevailed in 
their time, or in the time of their immediate 
successors, are to be considered as absolutely 
binding on all Christians for ever ;— as a model 
from which no Church is at liberty to depart. 
And they make our membership of the Church 
of Christ, and our hopes of the Gospel-salvation, 
depend on an exact adherence to every thing 
that is proved, or believed, or even suspected, 
to be an apostolical usage; and on our possess- 
ing what they call x\postolical Succession ; that is, 

° By " ancient" some persons understand what belongs to the 
first three centuries of the Christian era ; some, the first four ; 
some, seven; so arbitrary and uncertain is the standard by which 
some would persuade us to try questions, on which they, at the same 
time, teach us to believe our Christian Faith and Christian Hope 
are staked ! 

" Scire velim, pretium chartis quotus arroget annus : 
****** 
Est vetus atque probus, centum qui perficit annos. 
Quid ? qui deperiit minor uno mense vel anno, 
Inter quos referendus erit ? veteresne?" * * * 

Horace, Epist. I. b. 2. 



I 



$ 18.] False Foundations substituted for the True. 115 

on our having a Ministry whose descent can be 
traced up in an unbroken and undoubted chain, 
to the Apostles themselves, through men regu- 
larly ordained by them or their successors, 
according to the exact forms originally appoi nted . 
And all Christians (so called) who do not come 
under this description, are to be regarded either 
as outcasts from " the Household of Faith," or at 
best as in a condition " analogous to that of the 
Samaritans of old" who worshipped on Mount 
Gerizim, p or as in "an intermediate state be- 
tween Christianity and Heathenism," and as 
"left to the uncovenanted mercies of God." 

$ 18. Those who on such grounds church- 

•> O ordinances 

defend the Institutions and Ordinances, iy e ™* ed firm 
and vindicate the Apostolical Charac- KSSf 
ter, of our own (or indeed of any) J? tan" 1 * 
Church, — whether on- their own sincere convic- 
tion, or as believing that such arguments are the 
best calculated to inspire the mass of mankind 
with becotningreveren.ee, and to repress the 
evil of schism, — do seem to me, in proportion 
as they proceed on those principles, to be, in 
the same degree, removing our institutions from 
a foundation on a rock, to place them on sand. 
Instead of a clearly-intelligible, weli-estabished, 
and accessible proof of divine sanction for 



P John iv. 

10* 



116 False Foundations [Essay II. 

the claims of our Church, they would sub- 
stitute one that is not only obscure, dispu- 
table, and out of the reach of the mass of man- 
kind, but even self-contradictory , subversive 
of our own and every Church's claims, and 
leading to the very evils of doubt, and 
schismatical division, which it is desired to 
guard against. 

iTioaT" T be Rock on which I am persuaded 
Enactments. our Reformers intended, and rightly in- 
tended, to rest the Ordinances of our Church, is, 
the warrant to be found in the Holy Scriptures 
written by, or under the direction of, those to 
whom our Lord had entrusted the duty of" teach- 
ing men to observe all things whatsoever He had 
commanded them." For in those Scriptures we 
find a divine sanction clearly given to a regular 
Christian Community, — a Church ; which is, 
according to the definition in our 19th Article,** 

1 In our Article as it stands in the English, it i3 " The 
visible Church of Christ is," &c. ; but there can be no doubt, 
I think, that the more correct version from the Latin (the 
Latin Articles appear to have been the original, and the 
English a translation — in some few places, a careless transla- 
tion — from the Latin) would have been " A visible Church," 
See. The Latin "Ecclesia Chrisri visibilis" would indeed 
answer to either phrase, the want of an article definite or inde- 
finite in that language rendering it liable to such ambiguity. 
But the context plainly shows that the writer is not speaking 
of the Universal Church, but of particular Churches, such as 
the "Churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome." The 
English translator probably either erred from momentary inat- 



§ 18.J substituted for the True. 117 

" a congregation (2. e. Society or Community; 
Ecclesia) of faithful men/ in the which the pure 
Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments 
duly administered according to Christ's ordi- 
nance, in all those things which of necessity are 
requisite to the same." Now since, from the 
very nature of the case, every Society must have 
Officers appointed in some way or other, and 
every Society that is to be 'permanent, a per- 
petual succession of Officers, in whatever man- 
ner kept up, and must have also a power of 
enacting, abrogating, and enforcing on its own 
members, such regulations or bye-laws as are 
not opposed to some higher authority, it follows 
inevitably (as I have above observed) that any 
one who sanctions a Society, gives, in so doing, 
his sanction to those essentials of a Society, its 
Government, — its Officers, — its Regulations. — 
Accordingly, even if our Lord had not expressly 
said any thing about " binding and loosing," still 
the very circumstance of his sanctioning a 
Christian Community would necessarily have 
implied his sanction of the Institutions, Minis- 
ters, and Government, of a Christian Church, so 
long as nothing is introduced at variance with 
the positive enactments, and the fundamental 

tention, or, (more likely) understood by "Ecclesia," and by "the 
Church," the particular Church whose Articles were before him, — 
the Church of England. 

1 L e. believer3 in Christ ; — fideles ; — ma-roi. 



128 The English Reformers chose the true Basis. [Essay II. 

principles laid down by Himself and his 
Apostles. 



English § 19 - This > ^ch I have called a 

chose™?™ foundation on a rock, is evidently that 
datfoi?. 1111 " on which (as has been just observed) 
our Reformers designed to place our Church. 
While they strongly deny to any Church 
the power to "ordain any thing contrary to 
God's Word," or to require as essential to sal- 
vation, belief in any thing not resting on scrip- 
tural authority, they claim the power for each 
Church of ordaining and altering "rites and 
ceremonies," " so that all things be done to 
edifying," and nothing "contrary to God's 
Word." They claim on that ground for our 
own Church a recognition of that power in 
respect of the Forms of Public Service ; on 
the ground, that is (Art. 36) that these "con- 
tain nothing that is in itself superstitious and 
ungodly." 
ciaim of And they rest the claims of Minis- 

the Minis- J 

tersofthe ters, not on some supposed sacramen- 

Anglican rr 

church. ta j virtue transmitted from hand to 
hand in unbroken succession from the Apos- 
tles, in a chain, of which if any one link be 
-even doubtful, a distressing uncertainty is 
thrown over all Christian Ordinances, Sa- 
craments,, and Church-privileges for ever; but, 
on the fact of those Ministers being the regu- 
larly-appointed officers of a regular Christian 



$ 19.] The English Reformers chose the true Basis. 1 19 

Community, " It is not lawful" (says the 23d 
Article) " for any man to take upon him the 
office of public preaching, or ministering the 
sacraments in the congregation, before he be 
laic/idly called and sent to execute the same.— 
And those we ought to judge lawfully called 
and sent, which be chosen and called to this 
work by men who have public authority 
given unto them in the Congregation, to call 
and send Ministers into the Lord's Vine- 
yard." 5 

Those who are not satisfied with the {JJSjf* 
foundation thus laid, — and which, as I S"t£ 
have endeavored to show, is the very tSoliand 10 " 
foundation which Christ and his Apos- church. 
ties have prepared for us, — who seek to take 
higher ground, as the phrase is, and maintain 
what are called according to the modern fashion 
"Church principles," or "Church-of-England 
principles," are in fact subverting the princi- 
ples both of our own Church in particular, and 
of every Christian Church that claims the in- 
herent rights belonging to a Community, and 
confirmed by the sanction of God's Word as 
contained in the Holy Scriptures. It is ad- 
vancing, but not in the right road, — it is ad- 
vancing not in sound learning but error, — not 
in faith, but in superstitious credulity, to seek for 
some higher and better ground on which to rest 

• See $ 23. 



120 The English Reformers chose the true Basis. [Essay II. 

our doctrines and institutions than that on which 
they were placed by " the Author and Finisher 
of our Faith." 4 

On this point I will take the liberty of insert- 
ing an extract from a Charge (not published) 
which was delivered a year ago ; because I 
wish to point out, that the views I am taking, 
whether sound or unsound — and this I sincerely 
wish to be decided according to the reasons 
adduced — are at least not hastily but delibe- 
rately adopted, and have undergone no change 
in that interval. 



* It is curious to observe how very common it is for any Sect or 
Party to assume a title indicative of the very excellence in which 
they are especially deficient, or strongly condemnatory of the very 
errors with which they are especially chargeable. Thus, those who 
from time to time have designated themselves " Gnostics," i. e. 
persons ^ knowing' ' the Gospel, in a far superior degree to other 
professed Christians, — have been generally remarkable for their 
wa?Uof knowledge of the very first rudiments of evangelical truth. 
The phrase "Catholic" religion, (». e. "Universal") is £he most 
commonly in the mouths of those who are the most limited and 
exclusive in their views, and who seek to shut out the largest 
number of Christian communities from the Gospel-covenant. 
"■ Schism," sgain, is by none more loudly reprobated than by those 
who are not only the immediate authors of schism, but the 
advocates of principles tending to generate and perpetuate 
schisms without end. And "Church-principles," — 'High- 
church principles," — " Church-of-England principles," — are the 
favourite terms of those who go the furthest in subverting all 
these. 

Obvious as this fallacy is, there is none more commonly successful 
in throwing men off their guard. 



( 19.] The English Reformers chose the true Basis. 121 

" When I speak of unceasing progress, — of 
continual improvement in all that pertains to 
the Christian life, — as what we ought to aim at, 
both in ourselves, and in those with whom we 
have influence, it may perhaps be proper to add, 
that this does not imply any attempt ' to be 
wise above that which is written,'— any expec- 
tation of a new and additional revelation, or of 
the discovery of new doctrines,' — any pretensions 
to inspiration, — or hopes of a fresh outpouring 
of that, or of any other miraculous gifts. It 
seemed needful to make this remark, because 
such hopes have been cherished, — such pre- 
tensions put forth, — from time to time, in va- 
rious ages of the Church, and not least in the 
present. 

"I have coupled together these two things* 
— miraculous gifts, and a new revelation, be* 
cause I conceive them to be in reality inse- 
parable. Miracles are the only sufficient cre- 
dentials on which any one can reasonably de- 
mand assent to doctrines not clearly revealed 
(to the understanding of his hearers) in Scripture. 
The promulgation of new articles of faith, 
or of articles which, though not avowedly new, 
are yet not obviously contained in Scrip- 
ture, is most presumptuous, unless so authen- 
ticated. And again, pretensions to miracu- 
lous powers such as those of Moses and the 
Prophets, — of Christ and the Apostles, seem 



122 The English Reformers chose the true Basis. [Essay II. 

to imply some such object to be furthered by 
them. At any rate, those who shall have 
thus established their claim to be considered 
as messengers from Heaven, may evidently 
demand assent to whatever they may, in 
that character promulgate. If any persons 
therefore pretend to such a mark of a divine 
commission as the gift of tongues, or any such 
power, no one who admits their pretensions can 
consistently withhold assent from any thing 
they may declare themselves commissioned to 
teach. 

" And, again, if any persons claim for any 
traditions of the Church, an authority, either 
paramount to Scripture, or equal to Scripture, 
or concurrent with it, — or, which comes to the 
very same thing, decisive as to the interpretation 
of Scripture? — taking on themselves to de- 
cide what is ' the Church, ' and what tradition 
is to be thus received, — these persons are 
plainly called on to establish by miracu- 
lous evidence the claims they advance. And 
if they make their appeal not to miracles 
wrought by themselves, but to those which 
originally formed the evidence of the Gos- 
pel, they are bound to show b}' some de- 
cisive proof, that that evidence can fairly 
be brought to bear upon and authenticate their 

u See Appendix, Note (H.) 



) 19.] The English Reformers chose the true Basis. 123 

pretension ; — that they are, by Christ's decree, 
the rightful depositories of* the power they 
claim. 

" But to such as reject and protest against 
all such groundless claims, an interminable 
field is still open for the application of all 
the faculties, intellectual and moral, with 
which God has endowed us, for the fuller 
understanding and development of the truths 
revealed in his written Word. To learn and 
to teach what is there to be found ; — to de- 
velop more and more fully to your own minds 
and to those of your hearers, what the Evan- 
gelists and x\postles have conveyed to us, 
will be enough and more than enough to oc- 
cupy even a longer life than any of us can ex- 
pect* 

" The Mosaic Dispensation was the dawn of 
* the dayspring from on high,' not yet arrived, — 
of a Sun only about to rise. It was a Revela- 
tion in itself imperfect. The Sun of the Gospel 
arose ; ' the true Light, which lighteth every 
one that cometh into the world' appeared : but 
it was partially hidden, and is so, still, by a veil 
of clouds ;^by prejudices of various kinds, — by 
the passions, and infirmities, and ignorance, of 
mankind. We may advance, and we may lead 
others to advance, indefinitely, in the full deve- 
lopment of Gospel-truth, — of the real character 
and meaning and design of Christ's religion ; 
11 



124 The English Reformers chose the true Basis. [Essay II. 

not by seeking to superadd something to the 
Gospel-revelation ; but by a more correct and 
fuller comprehension of it ; — not by increasing, 
absolutely, the light of the noonday-sun, but by 
clearing away the mists which obscure our view 
of it. Christianity itself cannot be improved; 
but men's views, and estimate, and compre- 
hension of Christianity, may be indefinitely im- 
proved. 

"Vigilant discretion however is no less need- 
ful than zeal and perseverance, if we would 
really advance in the Christian course. The 
most active and patient traveller, if he be not 
also watchfully careful to keep in the right 
road, may, after having once diverged from it 
into some other track, be expending his ener- 
gies in going further and further astray, while 
he fancies himself making progress in his 
journey. 

" In various ways is the Christian, and not 
least, the Christian Minister, liable to this kind 
of self-deception. I am not now, you will 
observe, adverting chiefly to the danger of 
mistaking what is absolutely false, for true, or 
wrong for right ; but rather to that of mistaking 
the real character of some description of truth 
or of valuable knowledge. We have to guard 
against mistake, for instance, as to what is or is 
not a part of the Christ\an-Ilcvelatio?i ; — a truth 
belonging to the Gospel, and resting, properly, 



{19.] The English Reformers chose the true Basis. 125 

on divine authority. While advancing in the 
attainment of what may be in itself very 
valuable and important knowledge we may 
be in fact going further and further in error, if 
we confound together the inspired and the 
uninspired, — the sacred text, with the human 
comment. 

" There are persons (such as I have above 
alluded to) who in their zeal — in itself laudable 
— to advance towards a full comprehension of 
the Gospel-revelation, have conceived that they 
are to seek for this by diligent research into the 
tenets and practices of what is called the Primi- 
tive Church ; i. e. the Christian world during 
the first three or first four Ages ; and some 
have even gone so far as to represent the reve- 
lation of the Christian-scheme contained in 
the New Testament as a mere imperfect and 
uncompleted outline, which was to be filled up 
by the Church in the succeeding three centu- 
ries ; — as a mere beginning of that which the 
early Fathers were empowered and commis- 
sioned to finish; though on what grounds any 
kind of authority is claimed for the Church 
then, which does not equally belong to it at this 
day, or at any intermediate period, no one, 
as far as I know, has even attempted to make 
out. 

" Now, to learn what has been said and done 
by eminent men in every Age of the Church, is 



126 The English Reformers chose the true Basis. [Essay II. 

of course interesting and valuable to a theolo- 
gical student. And a man of modesty and 
candour will not fail to pay great attention to 
their opinions, in whatever period they may 
have lived. He will also inquire with peculiar 
interest into the belief and the practices of those 
who had been instructed by the immediate dis- 
ciples and other contemporaries of the Apostles 
themselves. But the mistake is, to assume, on 
the ground of presumptuous conjecture (for of 
proof, there is not even a shadow) that these 
men were infallible interpreters of the Apostles, 
and had received from them by tradition some- 
thing not contained, or not plainly set forth, in 
their writings, but which yet were designed 
by those very Apostles as a necessary portion of 
Christianity. 

"Not only are all these assumptions utterly 
groundless and unwarrantable, but, on the con- 
trary, even if there is any thing which we can 
be morally certain was practised in the time of 
the Apostles, and with their sanction (as is the 
case for instance with the Agapasor Lovefeasts) 
we must, yet consider it as not designed by 
them to be of universal and perpetual obliga- 
tion, where they have not distinctly laid it down 
as such in their writings. By omitting, in any 
case, thus to record certain of their practices or 
directions, they have given us as clear an indi- 
cation as we could have looked for, of their de- 



} 19.] The English Reformers chose the true Basis. 127 

sign to leave these to the free choice and de- 
cision of each Church in each Age and Coun- 
try. And there seems every reason to think 
that it was on purpose to avoid misapprehen- 
sions of this kind, that they did leave unre- 
corded so much of what we cannot but be sure 
they must have practised, and said, and estab- 
lished, in the Churches under their own imme- 
diate care. 

" And it should be remembered that what 
some persons consider as the safe side in res- 
pect of such points, — as the extreme of scru- 
pulous and cautious veneration — is in truth the 
reverse. A wise and right-minded reverence 
for divine authority will render us doubly scru- 
pulous of reckoning any thing as a divine pre- 
cept or institution, without sufficient warrant. 
Yet, at the first glance, a readiness to bestow 
religious veneration, with or without good 
grounds (which is the very characteristic of su- 
perstition) is apt to be mistaken for a sign of 
pre-eminent piety. Besides those who hold the 
4 double doctrine' — the * disciplina arcani'-^-and 
concerning whom therefore it would be rash to 
pronounce whether an}' particular tenet taught 
by them, is one which they inwardly believe, 
or is one of the exoteric instructions deemed 
expedient for the multitude, — besides these per- 
sons, there are, no doubt, men of sincere though 
mistaken piety, who, as has been just intima- 
II* 



128 The English Reformers chose the true Basis. [Essay II. 

ted, consider it as the safe side in all doubtful 
cases, to adhere with unhesitating confidence 
to every thing that may possibly have been intro- 
duced by the Apostles ; — to make every thing 
an article of Christian failh that could have 
been implied in any thing they may have 
taught. But such persons would perceive on 
more careful and sober reflection, that a right- 
ly scrupulous piety consists, as has been said, 
in drawing the line as distinctly as we are 
able, between what is, and what is not designed 
by our divine Instructors as a portion of their 
authoritative precepts and directions. It is by 
this careful anxiety to comply with their intention 
with respect to us, that we are to manifest a true 
veneration for them. 

" Any thing that does not fall within this rule, 
we may believe, but not as a part of the Chris- 
tian revelation ; — we may practise, but not as 
a portion of the divine institutions essential to a 
Christian Church, and binding on all men in 
all ages : not, in short, as something placed 
beyond theboundsof that * binding and loosing' 
power which belongs to every Church, in refe- 
rence to things neither enjoined in Scripture nor 
at variance with it. Otherwise, even though 
what we believe should be, really, and in itself, 
true, and though what we practise, should 
chance to be in fact what the Apostles did 
practise, we should not be honouring, but 



$ 20.] Destructive Principles. 129 

dishonouring God, by taking upon ourselves to 
give the sanction of his authority to that from 
which He has thought fit to withhold that 
sanction. When the Apostle Paul gave his 
advice on matters respecting which he ' had no 
commandment from the Lord,' he of course 
thought that what he was recommending was 
good ; but so far was he from presuming to put 
it forth as a divine command, that he expressly 
notified the contrary. Let us not think to ma- 
nifest our pious humility by reversing the Apos- 
tle's procedure I 

" I have thought it needful, in these times 
especially, to insert this caution against such 
mistaken efforts after advancement in Christian 
knowledge and practice ; against the delusions 
of those who, while they exult in their imagined 
progress in. the Christian course, are, in reality, 
straying into other paths, and following a bewiU 
dering meteor." 

§ 20. Those whose "Church-prin- Pretended 

.,,,,,. , r Church- 

ciples lead them thus to remove irom principles 

n r • r fatal to tho 

a firm foundation the institutions of a christian 

hopes and 

Christian Church, and especially of our privileges 

7 r J even'ol their 

own, and to place them on the sand, advocates - 
are moreover compelled, as it were with their 
own hands, to dig away even that very founda- 
tion of sand. For, in respect of our own Church, 
since it inculcates repeatedly and earnestly as 



130 Principles destructive of [Essay II. 

a fundamental principle,* that nothing is to be 
insisted on as an essential point of faith, that is 
not taught in Scripture, any member of our 
Church who should make essentials of points 
confessedly not found in Scripture, and who 
should consequently make it a point of neces- 
sary faith to believe that these are essentials, 
must unavoidably be pronouncing condemna- 
tion, either on himself, or on the very Church 
he belongs to, and whose claims he is profess- 
ing to fortify. 

But moreover, not from our own Church only, 
but from the Universal Church, — from all the 
privileges and promises of the Gospel, — the 
principles I am condemning, go to exclude, if 
fairly followed out, the very persons who advo- 
cate them. For it is certain that our own insti- 
tutions and practices (and the like may be said, 
I apprehend, of every other Church in the world) 
though not, we conceive, at variance with any 
Apostolical injunctions, or with any Gospel 
principle, are, in several points, not precisely 
coincident with those of the earliest Churches. 
The Agapae for instance, or " Love-feasts," 
alluded to just above, have, in most Churches, 
been long discontinued. The " Widows" again, 
whom we find mention of in Paul's Epistles, 



* Besides the Articles, s^ee, on this point, the Ordination 
Service. 



$ 20.] Christian Hopes and Privileges. 131 

appear plainly to have been an Order of 
Deaconesses regularly . appointed to particular 
functions in the earliest Churches: and their 
Deacons appear to have had an office conside- 
rably different from those of our Church. 



Each 



Again, it seems plainly to have been Bi ^ c 



p on- 



at least the general, if not the universal, f!Zd Y ovti 
practice of the Apostles, to appoint church! "* 
over each separate Church a single indivi- 
dual as a chief Governor, under the title of 
" Angel" (i. e. Messenger or Legate from the 
Apostles) or " Bishop," i. e. Superintend ant or 
Overseer. A Church and a Diocese seem to 
have been for a considerable time coextensive and 
identical. And each Church or Diocese (and 
consequently each Superintendent) though con- 
nected with the rest by ties of Faith and Hope 
and Charity, seems to have been (as has been 
already observed) perfectly independent as far 
as regards any power of control. 

The plan pursued 03- the Apostles seems to 
have been, as has been above remarked, to es- 
tablish agreat number of small (in comparison 
with modern Churches) distinct and indepen- 
dent Communities, each governed by its own 
single Bishop, consulting, no doubt, with his 
own Presbyters, and accustomed to act in con- 
currence with them, and occasionally confer- 
ring with the Brethren in other Churches, but 
owing no submission to the rulers of any other 



132 Principles destructive of [Essay II. 

Church, or to any central common authority 
except the Apostles themselves. And other 
points of difference might be added. 

Now to vindicate the institutions of our own, 
or of some other Church, on the Ground that 
they " are not in themselves superstitious or 
ungodly," — that they are not at variance with 
Gospel-principles, or with any divine injunction 
that was designed to be of universal obligation, 
is intelligible and reasonable. But to vindicate 
them on the ground of the exact conformity, 
which it is notorious they do not possess, to the 
most ancient models, and even to go beyond 
this, and condemn all Christians whose institu- 
tions and ordinances are not "one and utterly 
like" our own, on the ground of their departure 
from the Apostolical precedents, which no 
Church has exactly adhered to,— does seem— - 
to use no harsher expression, — not a little in- 
consistent and unreasonable. And yet one may 
not unfrequently hear members of Episcopalian 
Churches pronouncing severe condemnation on 
those of other Communions, and even excluding 
them from the Christian body, on the ground, 
not of their not being under the best form of 
Ecclesiastical Government/ but, of their wanting 

y It is remarkable that there are Presbyterians also, who 
proceed on similar principles; who contend that originally the 
distinction between Bishops and Presbyters did not exist ; and 



§20.] Christian Hopes and Privileges. 133 

the very essentials of a Christian Church : viz* 
the very same distinct Orders in the Hierarchy 
that the Apostles appointed : and this, while the 
Episcopalians themselves have, universally, so 
far varied from the Apostolical institutions as to 
have in one Church several Bishops; each of 
whom consequently differs in the office he holds, 
in a most important point, fi )m one of the pri- 
mitive Bishops, as much as the Governor of any 
one of our Colonies does from a Sovereign 
Prince. 

Now whether the several alterations, and 
departures from the original institutions* 
were or were not, in each* instance, made 
on good grounds, in accordance with an 
altered state of society, is a question which 
cannot even be entertained by those who 
hold that no Church is competent to vary 
at all from the ancient model. Their 
principle would go to exclude at once 
from the pale of Christ's Church almost 
every Christian Body since the first two or 
three Centuries. 

The edifice they overthrow crushes in its 
fall the blind champion who has broken its 
pillars. 

consequently (not that Episcopacy is not essential to a Church 
but) that Episcopal government is an unwarrantable innovation 
— an usurpation — a profane departure from the divine ordi- 
nances ! 



134 Arguments from Primitive Pradtice [Essay II. 

th^pSiJe $ 21. Waiving however what may be 
churches! 7 called a personal argument, and suppos- 
ment r h U iac- i n g tnat some mode could be devised 
the 8 great° of explaining away all the inconsis- 
christians. tencies I have been adverting to, still, 
if the essentials of Christianity, — at least, a 
considerable portion of them — are not to be 
found in Scripture, but in a supplementary 
Tradition, which is to be sought in the works 
of those early Fathers who were orthodox, the 
foundations of a Christian's Faith and Hope 
become inaccessible to nearly the whole oi" the 
Laity, and to much the greater part of the 
Clergy. 

This, it may be said, is just as it should be ; 
and as it must be : the unlearned being neces- 
sarily dependent on the learned, in respect of 
several most important points ; since the great 
mass of Christians cannot be supposed capable 
of even reading the Scriptures in the original 
tongues ; much less of examining ancient 
manuscripts, 
supposed Now this necessity I see no reason 

dependence . . . u . 

«a the word lor admitting, it it be understood in the 

of learned °' 

men - sense that the unlearned must needs 

take the word of the learned, and place im- 
plicit reliance 7 on the good faith of certain in- 
dividuals selected by them as their spiritual 



* See Appendix, Note (I.) 



\2l.] inaccessible to the People. 135 

guides. It is in their power, and is surely 
their duty, to ascertain how far the asser- 
tions of certain learned men are to be safely 
relied on. a 



a " It is manifest that the concurrent testimony, positive or 
negative, of several witnesses, when there can have been no con- 
cert, and especially when there is any rivalry or hostility between 
them, carries with it a weight independent of that which may be- 
long to each of them considered separately. For though, in such 
a case, each of the witnesses should be even considered as wholly 
undeserving of credit, still the chances might be incalculable 
against their all agreeing in the same falsehood. It is in this kind 
of testimony that the generality of mankind believe in the motions 
of the earth, and of the heavenly bodies, &c. Their belief is 
not the result of their own observations and calculations; nor 
yet again of their implicit reliance on the skill and the good-faith 
of any one or more astronomers ; but it rests on the agreement 
of many independent and rival astronomers ; who want neither the 
ability nor the will to detect and expose each other's errors. It 
is on similar grounds, as Dr. Hinds has justly observed, that 
all men, except about two or three in a million, believe in the 
existence and in the genuineness of manuscripts of ancient books, 
such as the Scriptures. It is not that they have themselves ex- 
amined these ; or again, (as some represent) that they rely im- 
plicitly on the good-faith of those who profess to have done so ; 
but they rely on the concurrent and uncontroAicted testimony of 
all who have made, or who might make, the examination : both un- 
believers, and believers of various hostile sects; any one of whom 
would be sure to seize any opportunity to expose the forgeries or 
errors of his opponents. 

This observation is the more important, because many persons 
are liable to be startled and dismayed on its being pointed out to 
them that they have been believing something — as they are led to 
suppose — on very insufficient reasons ; when the truth is per- 
haps that they have been mis-stating their reasons." — Rhetoric, 
part I. ch. 2. $ 4. 

12 



136 Arguments from Primitive Practice. [Essay IL 
Doubtful- But when, in the case now before us, 

ness of ap- 
peals to men come to consider and inquire what 

churches, t h e foundation really is on which they 
are told (according to the principles I have 
been speaking of) to rest their own hopes of 
eternal life, and to pronounce condemnation on 
those who differ from them, it cannot be but 
that doubt and dissatisfaction, and perhaps dis- 
gust, and danger of ultimate infidelity, will 
beset them, in proportion as they are of a 
serious and reflective turn, and really anxious 
to attain religious truth. For when referred 
to the works of the orthodox ancient Fathers* 
they find that a very large portion of these 
works is lost ; or that some fragments, or re^ 
ports of them by other writers, alone re- 
main : they find again that what has come 
down to us is so vast in amount that a life is 
not sufficient for the attentive study of even 
the chief part of it ; b they find these Authors by 



b Would not the ingenuous course be, for those who refer 
to the authority of " The Fathers," to state distinctly, 1st, which 
of these ancient writers they mean ; and, 2dly, whether they have 
read these? For, a very large proportion, even of the higher 
classes, are far from being aware of the voluminous character of 
the works thus vaguely referred to : and being accustomed, when 
any one refers to " The Scriptures" to understand him as 
speaking of a well-known book, which they presume he pro- 
fesses to have read, it is likely they should conclude, unless told to 
the contrary, that one who appeals to " The Fathers," has himself 
read them. 



} 21.] inaccessible to the People. 137 

no means agreed, on all points, with each 
other, or with themselves ; and that learned 
men again are not agreed in the interpretation 
of them ; and still less agreed as to the ortho- 
doxy of each, and the degree of weight due 
to his judgment on several points ; nor even 
agreed by some centuries as to the degree of 
antiquity that is to make the authority of 
each decisive, or more or less approaching to 
decisive. 

Every thing in short pertaining to this ^*l*£™ 
appeal is obscure, — uncertain, — dispu- Sased'oa 
table — -and actually disputed,— to such reports - 
a degree, that even those who are not able to 
read the original authors may yet be perfectly 
competent to perceive how unstable a founda- 
tion they furnish. The}'' can perceive that the 
mass of Christians are called on to believe 
and to do what is essential to Christianity, in 
implicit reliance on the reports of their respec- 
tive pastors, as to what certain deep theologi- 
cal antiquarians have reported to them, respect- 
ing the reports given by certain ancient Fathers, 
of the reports current in their times, concern- 
ing apostolical usages and institutions ! And 
yet whoever departs in any degree from these, 
is to be regarded at best in an intermediate 
state between Christianity and Heathenism ! 
Surely the tendency of this procedure must be 

« Sec Note, p. 114- 



133 Pretended Decisions of [Essay II. 

to drive the doubting into confirmed (though 
perhaps secret) infidelity, and to fill with 
doubts the most sincerely pious, if they are 
anxiously desirous of attaining truth, and un- 
happily have sought it from such instructors. 

dSKfS § 22 - But an attempt is usually 
chu C rch holip made to silence all such doubts by a 
reference to the Catholic Church, or the " primi- 
tive" or the " ancient Catholic Church," as 
having authority to decide, — and as having in 
fact decided, — on the degree of regard due to 
the opinions and testimony of individual wri- 
ters among the Fathers. And a mere refe- 
rence such as this, accompanied with unhesi- 
tating assertion, is not unfrequently found to 
satisfy or silence those who might be disposed 
to doubt. And while questions are eagerly 
discussed as to the degree of deference due to 
the " decisions of the universal Church," some 
preliminary questions are often overlooked : 
such as, : — when, and where did anyone visible 
Community, comprising all Christians as its 
members, exist? Does it exist still? Is its 
authority the same as formerly? And again, 
who are its rulers and other officers, rightfully 
claiming to represent Him who is the acknow- 
ledged Head of the Universal (or Catholic) 
Church, Jesus Christ, and to act as his Vice- 
gerents on Earth ? For, it is plain that no 



$ 22. J the Catholic Church. 139 

society that has a supreme Governor, can per- 
form any act, as a Society, and in its corpo- 
rate capacity, without that supreme Governor, 
either in person, or represented by some one 
clearly deputed by him, and invested with 
his authority. And a Bishop, Presbyter, or 
other officer, of any particular Church, although 
he is a member of the Universal Christian 
Church, and also a Christian Ecclesiastical- 
Ruler, is not a Ruler of the Universal Church ; 
his jurisdiction not extending beyond his par- 
ticular Diocese, Province, or Church : any 
more than a European King is King of Europe. 
Who then are to be recognised as Rulers of 
(not merely, in) the Universal Church ? Where 
(on Earth) is its central supreme government, 
such as every single Community must have . ? 
Who is the accredited organ empowered to 
pronounce its decrees, in the name of the whole 
Community ? And where are these decrees 
registered ? 

Yet many persons are accustomed to ®° e records 
talk familiarly of the decisions of the SLSSlf ° 
Catholic Church, as if there were some acces- 
sible record of them, such as we have of the 
Acts of any Legislative Body; and "as if there 
existed some recognised functionaries, regularly 
authorized to govern and to represent that com- 
munity, the Church of Christ ; and answering 
to the king — senate— or other constituted au- 
12* 



140 Pretended Decisions of [Essay II. 

thorities, in any secular community. And yet 
no shadow of proof can be offered, that the 
Church, in the above sense,— the Universal 
Church,— can possibly give any decision at 
all ; — -that it has any constituted authorities a& 
th-e organs by which, such decision could be 
framed or promulgated y — or, in short, that there 
is, or ever was, any one community on earth, re- 
cognised, or having any claim to be recognised, 
as the Universal Church, bearing rule over and 
comprehending all particular Churches. 

" 'We are wont to speak of the foundation of 
the Church,— the authority of the Church,-^-the 
various characteristics of the Church,— and the 
like,— r-as if the Church were, originally at least, 
One Society in all respects, From the period in 
which the Gospel was planted beyond the pre- 
cincts of Judaea, this manifestly ceased to be the 
case ; and as Christian, societies were formed 
among people more and more unconnected and 
dissimilar in character and circumstances, the 
difficulty of considering the Church as One 
Society increases. Still, from the habitual and 
unreflecting use of this phrase, " the Church," 
it is no uncommon case to confound the two 
notions ; and occasionally to speak of the various 
societies of Christians as one, occasionally, as 
distinct bodies. The mischief which has been 
grafted on this inadvertency in the use of the 
term, has already been noticed ; and it is no 



$ 22.] the Catholic Church. 141 

singular instance of the enormous practical re- 
sults which may be traced to mere ambi- 
guity of expression. The Church is undoubt- 
edly one, and so is the Human race one; but 
not as a Society. It was from the first com- 
posed of distinct societies ; which were called 
one, because formed on common principles. It 
is One Society only when considered as to its 
future existence. The circumstance of its hav-~ 
ing one common Head, (Christ,) one Spirit, 
one Father, are points of unity which no more 
make the Church One Society on earth, than 
the circumstance of all men having the same 
Creator, and being derived from the same 
Adam, renders the Human Race one Family. 
That Scripture often speaks of Christians gene- 
rally under the term, " the Church," is true ;. 
but if we wish fully to understand the force 
of the term so applied, we need only call to 
mind the frequent analogous use of ordinary 
historical language when no such doubt occurs. 
Take, for example Thucydides's History of the 
Peloponnesian War. It contains an account of 
the transactions of two opposed parties, each 
made up of many distinct communities ; on 
the one side were Democracies, on the other Oli- 
garchies. Yet precisely the same use is made 
by the historian of the terms " the Democracy" 
and " Oligarchy," as we find Scripture adopt- 
ing with regard to the term " the Church." 



142 Pretended Decisions of Essay II. 

No one is misled by these so as to suppose the 
Community of Athens one with that of Corcyra, 
or the Theban with the Lacedaemonian. When 
the heathen writer speaks of " the Democracy 
of" or " in" the various democratical States, 
we naturally understand him to mean distinct 
Societies formed on similar principles ; and so, 
doubtless, ought we to interpret the sacred 
writers when they, in like manner, make men- 
tion of the Church of, or in, Antioch, Rome, 
Ephesus* Corinth, &c. 

" \ But there was also an especial reason why 
the term Church should have been often used 
by the sacred writers as if it applied to One 
Society. God's dispensation had hitherto been 
limited to a single society, — the Jewish Peo- 
ple. Until the Gospel was preached, the 
Church of God was One Society. It therefore 
sometimes occurs with the force of a transfer 
from the objects of God's former dispensation, 
to those of his present dispensation. In like 
manner, as Christians are called " the Elect," 
their bodies " the Temple," and their Mediator 
" the High Priest ;" so, their condition, as the 
objects of God's new dispensation, is designated 
by the term " the Church of Christ," and " the 
Church." 

" ' The Church is one, then, not as consisting 
of One Society,, but because the various so- 
cieties, or Churches, were then modelled, and 



{ 22.] the Catholic Church. 143 

ought still to be so, on the same principles ; 
and because they enjoy common privileges,— 
one Lord, one Spirit, one baptism. Accord- 
ingly, the Holy Ghost, through his agents the 
Apostles, has not left any detailed account of 
the formation of any Christian society; but 
He has very distinctly marked the great princi- 
ples on which all were to be founded, whatever 
distinctions may exist amongst them. In short 
the foundation of the Church by the Apostles 
was not analogous to the work of Romulus, or 
Solon ; it was not properly, the foundation of 
Christian societies which occupied them, but 
the establishment of the principles on which 
Christians in all ages might form societies for 
themselves.' — E?icyclopoedia Metropolitans "Age 
of Apostolical Fathers," p. 774. 

" The above account is sufficiently established 
even by the mere negative circumstance of the 
absence of all mention in the Sacred Writings of 
any one Society on earth, having a Government 
and officers of its own, and recognised as the 
Catholic or Universal Church : especially when 
it is considered that the frequent mention of 
the particular Churches at Jerusalem, Antioch, 
Rome, Corinth, &c. — of the seven Churches 
in Asia, — and of 'the care of all the Churches' 
which Paul had founded, would have rendered 
unavoidable the notice of the One Church (had 
there been any such) which bore rule over all 



144 Pretended Decisions of [Essay II. 

the rest, either as its subjects, or as provincial 
departments of it. 

" This negative evidence, I say, would alone 
be fully sufficient, considering that the whole 
burden of proof lies on the side of those who 
set up such a claim. He who appeals to the 
alleged decisions of a certain Community, is 
clearly bound, in the first place, to prove its 
existence. But if we proceed to historical evi- 
dence, we find on examination, that there never 
was a time when the supremacy of any one 
Church was acknowledged by all, or nearly all 
Christians. And to say they ought to have done 
so, and that as many as have refused such sub- 
mission are to be regarded as schismatics 
and rebels, is evidently to prejudge the ques- 
tion. 

" The Universal Church, then, being one, in 
reference, not to any one Government on earth, 
but only to our Divine Head, even Ghrist, rul- 
ing Christians by his Spirit, which spoke to 
them from time to time through the Apostles 
while these were living, and speaks still in the 
words of the Christian Scriptures, it follows that 
each Christian is bound (as far as Church-autho- 
rity extends) to submit to the ordinances and 
decisions, — not repugnant to Scripture, (See 
Art. xxxiv.) of the particular Church of which 
he is a member. 

" If it were possible that all the Christians 



$ 22.] the Catholic Church. 145 

now in existence — suppose 250 millions — could 
assemble, either in person, or by deputations 
of their respective Clergy, in one place, to 
confer together : and that the votes, whether 
personal or by proxy, of 230 or 240 millions 
of these were to be at variance (as in many 
points they probably would be) with the de- 
cisions and practices of our own Church ; we 
should be no more bound to acquiesce in 
and adopt the decision of that majority, even 
in matters which we do not regard as essen- 
tial to the Christian Faith, than we should 
be, to pass a law for this realm, because it 
was approved by the majority of the human 
race." d 

Many persons are accustomed to No natural 
, . r • • i i ri s hts in a 

speak as 11 a majority had some natu- Majority. 

ral inherent right to control and to represent 
the whole of any Assembly or Class of persons. 
We are told of this or that being " held by 
most of the early Fathers ;" — of the opinions 
or practices of " the greater part of the mem- 
bers of the early Church ;" — of the " deci- 
sion of the majority of" such and such a 
Council, &c. No doubt, when other points are 
equal, the judgment of a greater number de- 
serves more consideration than that of a less ; 
but a majority has no such controlling or re- 
presenting power, except by express, arbitrary 

d Essays, 4th Series, pp. 166—171. 



146 Pretended Decisions of [Essay II. 

regulation and enactment ; and regulations as 
to this point differ in different cases. Thus, 
the decision of a Jury, in England, is their 
unanimous decision ; in Scotland, that of two- 
thirds ; a decision of the House of Peers, is that 
of a majority of those who are (personally, or 
by Proxy) present; — of the House of Commons, 
— of a majority in a House of not less than 
forty; &c. And when there is no express enact- 
ment or agreement on this point, nothing can 
fairly be called an opinion or decision of such 
and such persons, except one in which they all 
concur. When they do not, we then look, not 
merely to the numbers, but also to the characters 
and circumstances of each party. 
Ambiguity Many again are misled by the two- 

of the words ...... , a 1 • 

" Autho- lold ambiguity in the phrase "Authority 

rity" and . . 

"Church." of the Catholic (or Universal) Church ;" 
both "Authority," and "Church" e being often 
employed in more than one sense. Authority, 
in the sense, not of •power? but of a claim to 
attention and to deference, (more or less as the 
case may be) belongs, of course, to the " Unr- 

e See Appendix, Note (K.) 

f It is worthy of remark that Power (or Authority in that sense) 
in reference to any 'particular act, or decision, does not admit of 
degrees. A man may indeed have more or less power than an* 
other ; that is, he may have rightful power to do something which 
another cannot : but with respect to any specified act, he either 
has the power, or he has it not. On the other hand, " Authority" 
in the sense of a claim to deference, admits of infinite degrees. 



$ 22.] the Catholic Church. 147 

versal Church," meaning thereby, not, any sin- 
gle Society, but Christians generally throughout 
all regions ; — the " Christian World," or (in 
modern phraseology) " the Christian Public." 
Whatever is, or has been, attested, or believed, 
or practised, by all of these, or by the greater 
part of them, or by several of those whom we 
may regard as the best and wisest among them, 
— is, of coarse, entitled to a degree of attentive 
and respectful consideration, greater or ]ess 
according to the circumstances of each case. 

It is in quite a different sense that we speak 
of the "Authority," for instance, of Parliament ; 
meaning, of an Act of Parliament, regularly 
passed according to the prescribed forms, and 
claiming (if not at variance with the divine laws) 
submission — compliance — obedience; quite in- 
dependent of any approbation on our part. 

And yet one may find it asserted, as J^ {d ™~ 
a matter that admits of no doubt, and tTsn^ol 
is to be taken for granted, as "generally StSSSj" 8 
admitted, except by those trained in a modern 
school, that any particular Church owes obedi- 
ence to the Universal Church, of which it is a 
part." Such assertions sometimes come from 
men of acknowledged learning ; in reality far 
too learned not to be themselves well aware that 
there never was, since the days of the Apostles, 
any such Body existing as could claim, on the 
plea of being the recognised representative of 
13 



148 Appeals to Catholic Decisions superfluous. [Essay II. 

the whole Christian World, this " obedience," 
from each particular Church ; and hence, these 
bold assertions will often succeed in overawing 
the timid, in deceiving the ignorant and incon- 
siderate, and in satisfying the indolent, 
spted by ^ ne temptation, doubtless, is very 
afi P unde-° strong — especially for those who would 
thoHty!"* maintain doctrines or practices, that are, 
seemingly at least, at variance with Scripture — 
to make an appeal to a standard that is inacces- 
sible to the mass of mankind, and that is in all 
respects so vague ; to a vast and indefinite num- 
ber of writers, extending over a very long- and 
indefinite space of time ; — and to avail oneself 
of the awe-inspiring force of sacred names by 
exhorting men, in the apparent language of 
Scripture 5 — (for no such passage really exists) 
to " hear the Church !" 



Appeals to § 23. The readiness with which 

supposed 

decisions, some persons acquiesce, at least pro- 
cathoiic f ess to acquiesce, in supposed deci- 
supcrfluous s i ons of the Universal or Catholic 

as they are 

unsound. Church, using the term in a sense in 

s Our Lord directs his disciples, in the event of a dispute be- 
tween two individuals, to refer the matter, in the last resort, to the 
decision of the Congregation, Assembly, or Church (Ecclesia) ; 
and that if any one disobey (or " refuse to hear," as our translators 
render it) this, he is to be regarded " as a heathen," &c, iuv tth 
IkkX^lus Trapmowr). Those who adduce this passage, would, it 
may be presumed, have at least preferred bringing forward, if they 
could have found one, some passage of Scripture which does sup- 
port their views. 



\ 23.] Appeals to Catholic Decisions superfluous. 149 

which it can even be proved that no such 
Community ever existed on Earth, and of 
General Councils such as, in fact, never met, 
and of Traditions several of which are such as 
to need proof, first, how far they are genuine, 
and next, how far, if admitted to be genuine, 
they would be binding on all Christians, — this 
ready acquiescence, I say, is the more extra- 
ordinary, when we consider that many of the 
points which are attempted to be supported by 
an appeal to such authority, do, in fact, stand 
in no need of that support, but have a firm 
foundation in Scripture, by virtue of the powers 
plainly conferred by Christ Himself on Chris- 
tian Communities. 

Any forms, for instance, for Public Worship, 
and for the Ordaining of Christian Ministers, 
which " contain'' (as our Reformers maintain 
respecting those they sanctioned) 11 " nothing 
that is in itself superstitious and contrary to 
God's Word," are plainly binding, by Christ's 
own sanction, on the members of the Church 
that appoints them. 

But some, it should seem, are not sel f_° t it X ,y 
satisfied with a justification of their Zught, but 
own ordinances and institutions, un- SemnaSon 
less they can find a plea for condem- ofotbers - 
ning all those who differ from them. And this 
plea they seek, not by endeavouring to show the 

h Article xxxvi. 



J50 Appeals to Catholic Decisions superfluous. [Essay II 

superior expediency, with a view to decency, 
good order, and edification, of the enactments 
they. would defend, but by maintaining the 
obligatory character of supposed apostolical 
traditions; and then they are driven, as I have 
said, to shift our own institutions from the foun-~ 
dation on a rock, to place them on sand. 

When one sees persons not content with the 
advantages they enjoy > unless they can exclude 
others, and in the attempt to do so, "falling 
into the midst of the pit they have digged for 
another," it is hardly possible to avoid recalling 
to one's mind the case of Haman, and the re^ 
suit of his jealousy of Mordecai. 
Reformers Some persons have endeavoured 

represented _ 

as appeal- Irom time to time, to represent our 
scripture Reformers as appealing to the practice 
tion jointly. f what is called the Primitive Churchy 
and to the writings of the early Fathers, as 
the principal,— or as one principals-ground on 
which they rest the vindication of their own 
decisions; and as taking for their authoritative 
standard of rectitude and truth in religious 
matters, not Scripture alone, but Scripture com- 
bined and " blended with Tradition." 

of°thS r2 ^ no - it is ver y true tnat tne y ^° ( as 

respect" o" ^ was perfectly natural they should, 
troversy"" engaged as they were in controversy 
manistt?" with the Romanists) frequently re- 
fer to the records which their opponents 



$ 23.J Appeals to Catholic Decisions superfluous. 151 

appealed to, in order to show that the very 
authorities these last were accustomed to rely 
on, are in fact opposed to them. They point 
out the proofs extant that many doctrines and 
practices which had been made to rest on supposed 
ancient tradition, were in fact comparatively 
modern innovations ; and they vindicate them- 
selves from the charge of innovation in some 
points by referring to ancient precedents. All 
this is perfectly natural and perfectly justifia- 
ble. But it is quite a different thing from 
acknowledging a decisive authority in early 
precedents, and in Tradition, either alone, or 
" blended with Scripture." 1 If any man is 
charged with introducing an unscriptural no- 
velty, and he shows first that it is scriptural, and 
then (by reference to the opinions of those 
who lived long ago) that it is no novelty, it is- 
most unreasonable to infer tha,t Scripture au- 



1 The maxim of " abundans cautela nocet nemini" is by no means 
a safe one if applied without limitation. (See Logic, b. ii. ch. 
5, $ 6.) 

It is sometimes imprudent (and some of our Divines have, 
I think, committed this imprudence) to attempt to " make 
assurance doubly sure" by bringing forward confirmatory reasons 
which, though in themselves perfectly fair,, may be interpreted un-. 
fairly, by representing them as an acknowledged indispensable 
foundation ; — by assuming for instance, that an appeal to such and 
such of the ancient Fathers or Councils, m confirmation of some 
doctrine or practice, is to be understood as an admission that it 
would fall to the ground if not so confirmed. 

13* 



152: Appeals to Catholic Decisions superfluous. [Essay II. 

thority would have no weight with him unless 
backed by the opinions of fallible men. 

No one would reason thus absurdly in any 
other case. For instance, when some bill is 
brought into one of the Houses of Parliament, 
and it is represented by its opponents as of a 
novel and un-heard-of character, it is common, 
and natural, and allowable, for its advocates to 
cite instances of similar Acts formerly passed. 
Now, how absurd it would be thought for any 
one thence to infer that those who use such ar- 
guments must mean to imply that Parliament 
has no power to pass anAct unless it can be 
shown that similar Acts have been passed for- 
merly ! 

If any Bishop of the present day should be 
convinced that such and such Theologian s,-r— 
ancient and modern— have given correct and 
useful expositions of certain parts of Scripture, 
he could not but wish that the Clergy he 
ordained should give similar expositions ; and 
he would probably recommend to their attentive 
perusal the works of those theologians. Now 
how monstrous it would be to represent him, on 
such grounds, as making those works a standard 
of faith conjointly with Scripture ! 
Reference Qf a jjk e character is the very refer- 
procedure° r ence I nave now Dee n making to the 
son a s %r r " documents put forth by those Reform- 
er autno- ers themselves. I certainly believe 



§ 23.] Appeals to Catholic Decisions superfluous. 153 

them to be in accordance with the prin- rity is put 
ciples above laid down as scriptural and ciliie" de 
reasonable: but I protest (and so probably 
would they) against " blending with Scripture" 
the writings of the Reformers, to constitute 
jointly a rule of faith binding on every Chris- 
tian's conscience. If any one is convinced that 
the doctrines and practices and institutions of 
our Church are unscriptural, he is bound in 
conscience to leave it. 

Our Reformers believed, no doubt, that their 
institutions were, on the whole, similar to those 
of the earliest Churches; perhaps they may 
have believed this similarity to be greater than 
it really is; but what is the ground on which 
they rested the claim of these institutions to 
respectful acquiescence I On the ground of their 
" not being in themselves superstitious, and 
ungodly, and contrary to GooVs Word;" — on the 
ground of the "power of each particular Church 
to ordain and abrogate or alter" (though not 
wantonly and inconsiderately) Church-rites 
and ceremonies, provided nothing be done con- 
trary to Scripture. So also, they believed, no 
doubt, that the doctrines they taught, and which 
they commissioned others to teach, were such 
as had been taught by many early Fathers ; and 
thinking this, they could not but wish that the 
teaching of the Clergy should coincide with that 
of those Fathers : but what was the rule laid down, 



54 The Articles the Symbol of our Church. [Essay II. 

— the standard fixed on, for ascertaining what 
should be taught as a part of the Christian Reli- 
gion ? It was Holy Scripture ; not Scripture and 
Tradition, jointly, and "blended together;" but 
the Written Word of God ; nothing being allowed 
to be taught as an Article of faith that could 
not thence be proved. Again, they doubtless 
believed that there were early precedents for the 
form of Church-government they maintained, — 
for the different Orders of the Ministry, and for 
the mode of appointing each. They believed, 
no doubt, as a fact, that the Apostles ordained 
Ministers, and these, others, and so on in suc- 
cession, down to the then-existing period. But 
what was the basis on which they deliberately 
chose to rest their system ? On the declared 
principle that " those and those only are to be 
accounted as lawfully-appointed Ministers who 
are called and sent out by those who have autho- 
rity in the Congregation" (or Church) " to call 
and send labourers into the Lord's vineyard :" 
and though themselves deliberately adhering to 
episcopal Ordination, they refrain, both in the 
Article on the " Church" and in that on " min- 
istering in the Church" from specifying Epis- 
copacy and episcopal Ordination as among the 
essentials. 

TheArticies § 24. Some individuals among the 
Imbod^ng 1 Reformers have in some places used 



§ 24.] The Articles the Sj/mbol of our Church. 155 



the delibe- 
rate deci- 



language which may be understood as 
implying a more strict obligation to con- church. 01 "" 
form to ancient precedents than is acknow- 
ledged in the Articles. But the Articles being 
deliberately and jointly drawn up for the very 
purpose of precisely determining what it was 
designed should be determined respecting the 
points they treat of, and in order to supply to the 
Anglican Church their Confession of Faith on 
those points, it seems impossible that any man 
of ingenuous mind can appeal from the Articles, 
Liturgy, and Rubric, put forth as the authori- 
tative declarations of the Church, to any other 
writings, whether by the same or by other 
authors. 11 On the contrary, the very circum- 
stance that opinions going far beyond what the 

* Articles XIX. XX, XXIII. XXXIV. XXXVI. 

" XIX. Of the Church.— The visible Church of Christ 
[_" ecclesia Christi visibilis est," &c. evidently A visible Church 
of Christ is a congregation, &c] is a congregation of faithful 
men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the 
Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance 
in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. 

" As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, 
havr erred ; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in 
their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of 
Faith. 

" XX. Of the Authority of the Church.— The Church hath 
power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Con- 
troversies of Faith : And yet it is not lawful for the Church 
to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Word written, 
neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be 



156 The Articles the Symbol of our Church. [Essay II. 

Articles express, or hi other respects conside- 
rably differing from them, did exist, and were 
well known and current, in the days of our 
reformers, gives even the more force to their 
deliberate omissions of these, and their distinct 
declaration of what they do mean to maintain. 
It was not hastily and unadvisedly that they 
based the doctrines of their Church on " the 
pure Word of God," and the claim of their 
Church to the character of a Christian Com- 
munity, on its being a " Congregation of be- 



repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a wit- 
ness and a keeper of holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any 
thing against the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce 
;any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation. 

" XXIII. Of Ministering in the Congregation. — It is not 
lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, 
or ministering the Sacraments in the Congregation, before he be 
lawfully called and sent to execute the same. And those we 
ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called 
to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in 
the congregation, to call and send Ministers into the Lord's vine- 
yard. 

" XXXIV. Of the Traditions of the Church.— It is not 
necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, 
and utterly like ; for at all times they have been divers, and 
may be changed according to the diversities of countries, 
times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against 
God's Word. Whosoever through his private judgment, 
willingly and purposely,, doth openly break the traditions and 
ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the 
Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common 
authority, ought to be rebuked openly, (that others may fear 



§24.] The Articles the Symbol of our Church. 157 

lievers, in which that pure Word is preached, 
and the Christian Sacraments duly adminis- 
tered." 

Whatever therefore may have been Distinction 

•J between 

the private opinion of any individuals HtoUdb! 
among their number, they have declared S^ 8 
plainly what it was they agreed in re- was agreed 
gardingas a safe and sufficient founda- S sei 
tion, and as essential, and consequently requir- 
ing to be set forth and embodied in the Symbol 
or Creed of their Church. 

But neither the Reformers of our Church, 
nor any other human Being, could frame any 
expressions such as not to admit of being ex- 
plained away, or the consequences of them 
somehow evaded, by an ingenious person who 

to do the like,) as he that offencleth against the common order of 
the Church, and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate, and wound- 
eth the consciences of the weak brethren. 

" Every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, 
change, and abolish, ceremonies or rites of the Church ordained 
only by man's authority, so that all things be done to edifying. 

"XXX VI. Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers. — 
The Book of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops, and Order- 
ing of Priests and Deacons, lately set forth in the time of Edward 
the Sixth, and confirmed at the same time by authority of Parlia- 
ment, doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and 
Ordering : neither hath it any thing, that of itself is superstitious and 
ungodly. And therefore whosoever are consecrated or ordered ac- 
cording to the Rites of that Book, since the second year of the 
forenamed King Edward unto this time, or hereafter shall be con- 
secrated or ordered according to the same Rites ; we decree all such 
to be rightly, orderly, and lawfully consecrated and ordered." 



158 The Articles the Symbol of our Church. [Essay II. 

should resolutely set himself to the task. And 
accordingly our Church has been represented 
as resting her doctrines and her claims on Scrip- 
ture and Tradition jointly, and " blended" to- 
gether. 

We have been told for instance of a person 
held np as a model of pure Anglican Church- 
principles, that he " submitted to the decisions 
of inspiration wherever it was to be found, 
whether in Scripture or Antiquity ." And again 
we have been told that " Rome differs from us 
as to the authority which she ascribes to tradi- 
tion : she regards it as co-ordinate, our divines 
as swo-ordinate ; as to the way in which it is to be 
employed, she, as independent of Holy Scripture ; 
ours, as subservient to, and blended with it : as 
to its limits, she supposes that the Church of 
Rome has the power of imposing new articles 
necessary to be believed for salvation ; ours, 
that all such articles were comprised at first in 
the Creed, and that the Church has only the 
power of clearing, defining, and expounding 
these fixed articles." 

SlTcluSh Now whether the above description be 
bEi Tra- a correct one as far as regards the te- 
scripture. 111 ne ts of the Church of Rome, I do not pre- 
tend to decide, nor does it belong to my present 
purpose to inquire : but the description of the 
tenets of the Anglican Church, is such as I feel 
bound to protest against. If indeed by " wr** 



^24.] The Articles the Symbol of our Church. 159 

and " our divines 11 is to be understood certain hv- 
dividuals who profess adherence to the Church 
of England, the above description is, no doubt, 
very correct as far as relates to them : but if it 
be meant that such are the tenets of our Church 
itself as set forth in its authoritative Confession 
of Faith, — the Articles, — nothing can be more 
utterly unfounded, and indeed more opposite 
to the truth. Our Church not only does not 
" blend Scripture with Tradition," but takes 
the most scrupulous care to distinguish from 
every thing else the Holy Scriptures, as the 
sufficient and sole authoritative standard. 

Our Reformers do not merely omit to ascribe 
to any Creed or other statement of any doctrine, 
an intrinsic authority, or one derived from tradi- 
tion, but in the Article on the three Creeds, 1 

they take care distinctly to assign the Grounds on 

, i'ii 7 which the 

ground on which those are to be re- creeds are 

° % m made to 

tained ; viz. that "they may be proved rest - 
by Holy Writ." 

1 Nor, by the way, is it true that our Church ha3 declared, in 
that, or in any other Article, " that all such Articles as are neces- 
sary to be believed for Salvation were comprised at first in the 
[Apostles] Creed. This, in fact, is neither done, nor was intended 
to be done, by the frame rs of that Creed; if at least they held — as 
I doubt not they did — the doctrine of the Atonement : for this is 
not at all mentioned in the Apostles' Creed. The cause, I have no 
cfbubt, was that the doctrine had not in the earliest ages, been dis- 
puted. But at any rate, the fact is certain; that the Creed does 
dwell on the reality of the historical transaction only, the actual 

14 



160 Co-ordinate and Subordinate Tradition. [Essay II. 
Pretended § 25. As for the distinction drawn 

distinction . f . . .. . 

between co- between making 1 radition on the one 

ordinate . 

and subor- hand " an authority co-ordinate with 

dinate tra- J 

dition. Scripture," on the other hand, " subor- 
dinate and blended with Scripture," I cannot but 
think it worse than nugatory." 1 The latter doc- 
trine I have no scruple in pronouncing the worse 
of the two ; because while it virtually comes to 
the same thing, it is more insidious, and less 
likely to alarm a mind full of devout reverence 
for Scripture. 

bJnd a ed tion When men are told of points of faith 
Jure, Scr the which they are to receive on the autho- 
gerous. dan " rity °f Tradition alone, quite indepen- 
dently of any Scripture-warrant, they are not 
unlikely to shrink from this with doubt or a dis- 
gust, which they are often relieved from at once, 
by a renunciation, in words, of such a claim, 
and by being assured that Scripture is the su- 
preme Authority, and that Tradition is to be 
received as its handmaid only, — as not in- 

death of Christ, without asserting for whom or for what He 
suffered death. 

m It is not meant to be implied that all persons who take this- 
view are, themselves, disposed to join the Romish Church, or to 
think little of the differences between that and their own. Distinc- 
tions may be felt as important by one person, which may appear to 
others, and many really be, utterly insignificiant. The members, 
for instance, of the Russian branch at least, of the Greek Church, 
are said to abhor imcsg-e-worship, while they pay to pictures an ado- 
ration which Protestants would regard as equally superstitious. 



§ 25.] Co-ordinate and. Subordinate Tradition. 161 

dependent of it, but "subordinate and blendid 
with it." And yet if any or every part of 
Scripture is to be interpreted according to 
a supposed authoritative Tradition, and from 
that interpretation there is to be no appeal, 
it is plain that, to all practical purposes, this 
comes to the same thing as an independent 
Tradition. For on this system, any thing 
may be made out of any thing. The Jews 
may resort whenever it suits their purpose, 
(and often do) to an appeal to their Scrip- 
tures interpreted according to their tradition, 
in behalf of any thing they are disposed to 
maintain. I remember conversing some years 
ago with an educated Jew on the subject of 
some of their observances, and remarking, in 
the course of the conversation, that their pro- 
hibition of eating butter and flesh at the same 
meal, rested, I supposed, not, like several other 
prohibitions, on the Mosaic written Laws, but 
on Tradition alone. No, he assured me it was 
prohibited in the Law. I dare say my readers 
would be as much at a loss as I was, to guess 
where. He referred me to Exod. xxiii. 19. 
In like manner, if an ordinary stu- Co »se- 

' J quences of 

dent of Scripture declares that he finds JJJTJ* 
no warrant there for believing in the Jf e scSj"" 
bodily presence of Christ in the Eu- Trad?Jon. 
charist, and that he finds on the contrary our 
Lord Himself declaring that " it is the Spirit 



162 Co-ordinate and Subordinate Tradition. [Essay II. 

that quickeneth ;" (giveth life) " the flesh pro- 
fiteth nothing" he is told that Tradition directs 
us to interpret literally the words " This is 
my Body," and that he must not presume to 
set up his " private judgment" against the 
interpretation, and this, when perhaps he 
is assured by the same person, on similar 
grounds, that " the whole Bible is one great 
Parable !" 

If again he finds the Apostles ordaining 
Elders, (Presbyters) and never alluding to any 
person, except Christ Himself, as bearing any 
such office in the Christian Church as that of 
the Levitical Priest, (Hiereus) he is told, on the 
authority of Tradition, which he must not dis- 
pute, that Presbyter means Hiereus, a sacri- 
ficing Priest. Mahomet's application to him- 
self of the prophecy of Jesus, that He would 
" send another Paraclete" or Comforter, was 
received by his followers on similar grounds ; 
that is, it was an interpretation which he chose 
to put on the words ; and woe to him who 
should dispute it ! 

If again we find the whole tenor of Scripture 
opposed to invocation of Saints, and Image- 
worship, we may be told that there is a kind of 
invocation of Saints which the Scriptures, as 
interpreted by Tradition, allow and encourage. 
And so on, to an indefinite extent; just as effec- 
tually, and almost as easily, as if Tradition had 



$ 25.] Co-ordinate and Subordinate Tradition. 163 

been set up independent of Scripture, instead 
of being " blended with it." n 

" Tradition" and . " Church-interpretation" 
are made, according to this system, subordinate 
to, and dependent on Scripture, much in the 
same way that some parasite-plants are de- 
pendent on the trees that support them. The 
parasite at first clings to, and rests on the tree, 
which it gradually overspreads with its own 
foliage, till by little and little, it weakens and 
completely smothers it : 

" Miraturque novas frondes, et non sua poma." 

And it may be added that the insidi- b £g2S* 
ous character of this system is still JriScTpuT* 
further increased, if the principle be followed* 1 
laid down without following it out, at HsresSts! 
once, into all the most revolting consequences 
that may follow, and that have followed, from 
its adoption. For by this means a contrast is 
drawn between the most extravagant, and a far 
more moderate, system of falsehood and super- 
stition ; and it is insinuated that this favour- 
able contrast is the result of the one being built 
on " co-ordinate" and the other on " subor- 
dinate" Tradition ; the real difference being 
only that every usurped and arbitrary power, 
is usually exercised with comparative leniency at 

n See Powell on Tradition, § 14 — 17. 



164 Co-ordinate and Subordinate Tradition. [Essay II. 

first, till it has been well established. Let but 
the principle which is common to both systems 
be established ; and the one may be easily 
made to answer all the purposes of the other. 
whoZlin And a11 this time the advocates of 
iuSioaf this authoritative tradition may loudly 
proclaim that they require no assent to any 
thing but what "maybe proved by Scripture;" 
that is, proved to them; and which, on the 
ground of their conviction, must be implicitly 
received by every man. It is most important,^- 
when the expression is used of " referring to 
Scripture as the infallible standard," and re- 
quiring assent to such points of faith only as 
can be thence proved, to settle clearly, in the 
outset, the important question, " proved to 
whom ¥" If any man or Body of men refer us 
to Scripture, as the sole authoritative standard, 
meaning that we are not to be called on to be- 
lieve any thing as a necessary point of faith, 
on their word, but only on our own conviction 
that it is scriptural, then they place our faith on 
the basis, not of human authority, but of divine. 
But if they call on us, as a point of conscience, 
to receive whatever is proved to their satisfac- 
tion from Scriptures, even though it may appear 
to us unscriptural, then, instead of releasing 
us from the usurped authority of Man taking 
the place of God, they are placing on us two 
burdens instead of one, " You require us," 



§ 26.] Alleged Importance of Human Teaching. 165 

we might reply, " to believe, first, that whatever 
you teach is true; and secondly, besides this, to 
believe also, that it is a truth contained in Scrip- 
ture ; and we are to take ijour word for both !" 

§ 26. 1 can imagine persons urging, in im $£*£ 
reply to what has been said, the impor- JeacEXs? 
tance of giving the people religious instruction 
over and above the mere reading of Scripture, 
— the utility of explanations, and comments, — 
and the necessity of creeds and catechisms, 
&c. ; and dwelling also on the reverence due to 
antiquity, and on the arrogance of disregarding 
the judgment of pious and learned men, es- 
pecially of such as lived in or near the times of 
the Apostles. 

It is almost superfluous to remark that nothing 
at variance with all this has been here advanced. 
The testimony of ancient writers as to the facts, 
that such and such doctrines or practices did or 
did not prevail in their own times, or that such 
and such a sense was, in their times, conveyed 
by certain passages of Scripture, may often be 
very valuable ; provided we keep clear of the 
mistake of inferring, either that whatever is 
ancient is to be supposed apostolical, or even 
necessarily, in accordance with apostolical teach- 
ing; (as if errors had not crept in, even during 
the lifetime of the Apostles,) or again, that 

See Appendix, Note (L.) 



166 Alleged Importance [Essay II. 

every practice and regulation that really had 
the sanction of the Apostles (and which, 
therefore, must be concluded to have been 
the best, at that time) was designed by them, — 
when they abstained [see § 16] from record- 
ing it in writing, — to be of universal and 
eternal obligation ; — in short, that they entrus- 
ted to oral Tradition any of the essentials of 
Christianity. 1 ? And, again, the opinions of any 
author, ancient or modern, are entitled to re- 
spectful consideration in proportion as he 
ma} 7 have been a sensible, pious, and learn- 
ed man : provided we draw the line distinct- 
ly between the works of divine messen- 
gers inspired from above, and those of fallible 
men. 

But what is the object (unless it be, to mystify 
the readers, and draw off their attention from 
the real question) of dwelling on truths which 
are universally admitted, q not only in theory 

P And yet one may find persons defending this view by alleging 
that we have the Scriptures themselves by Tradition. Anyone 
may be believed to be serious in urging such an argument, if it is 
found that he places as much confidence in the genuineness of 
some account that has been transmitted from mouth to mouth by 
popular rumours from one end of the kingdom to another, as in a 
letter that has been transmitted over the same space. See Appen- 
dix, Note (K.) 

1 It is no uncommon practice with some writers, to shelter 
(as in the present instance) some pardaoxical tenet, when 
opposed, under the guise of a truism; and, when this has been 
admitted without suspicion, to unmask the battery as it were, 



§ 26.] of Human Teaching. 167 

but in practice, by Christians of every deno- 
mination ? Catechisms, oral or written, — ex- 
positions of Scripture — religious discourses or 
tracts, of some kind or other, &c. are in use, 
more or less, among all. The utility, and in- 
deed necessity, of human instruction, both for 
young Christians and adults, has never, that I 
know of, been denied by any Christian Church 
or denomination. The only important distinc- 
tion is between those who do, and those who 
do not, permit, and invite, and encourage their 
hearers to " search the Scriptures whether these 
things be so," which they are taught by their 
pastors. 

It is to be observed however, that what I am 
speaking of, is, a reference to Scripture, as the 

and by a seemingly slight change, to convert a self-evident and 
insignificant truth into a dogma of fearful importance. Thus for 
instance, when we are sometimes told, with much solemn earnest- 
ness, of the importance of holding fast " the faith of the Holy Catho- 
lic Church," this is explained as being " what has been held by 
all Christians, always, and every where ."" [" quod semper, quod 
ubique, quod ab omnibus"] and of course no one can think of 
denying that what has always been held universally by all Chris- 
tians as a part of their faith, must be a part of the universal [or 
Catholic] faith. There " needs no ghost to tell us that;" as it is 
in fact only saying that " Catholic." means " Universal," and that 
what is believed is believed. But when the wooden horse has been 
introduced, it is found to contain armed men concealed within it. 
" All Christians" is explained to mean " all the orthodox ;" and 
the " orthodox" to be, those in agreement with the authors who 
are instructing us. 



168 Alleged Importance [Essay II. 

sole basis of the articles of necessary faith, — the 
only decisive authority. 

Some persons, while claiming reception for 
such and such confessions of faith, declare 
continually and with much earnestness, that 
they are teaching nothing but what is " con- 
formable to Scripture," "agreeable to Scrip- 
ture," &c. And the unwary are often misled 
by not attending to the important distinction 
between this, — between what is, simply agreea- 
ble to Scripture, — and what is derived from 
Scripture,— -founded on it* and claiming no other 
authority. 

When it is said that the Old Testament and 
the New are not at variance, but conformable to 
each other, this is quite different from saying that 
either of them derives all its authority from the 
other. On the other hand, our Reformers do not 
maintain merely that the Creeds which they 
receive are agreeable to Scripture ; but that they 
are to be received because they may be proved 
from Scripture. 

The distinction, as I have above remarked, is 
apparent only, and not really important, between 
those who require the acceptance of what they 
teach, independently of Scripture, and those who 
do refer to Scripture as the ground of their own 
conviction, or at least as confirmatory of their 
teaching, but require their interpretations of 
Scripture to be implicitly received ; denying to 



$ 26.] of Human Teaching. 169 

individuals the right and the duty r of judging 
ultimately for themselves. The real distinction 
is between those who do, and those who do 
not recognise this right and duty. For if a 
certain comment is to be received implicitly 
and without appeal, it not only is placed, prac- 
tically, as far as relates to every thing except 
a mere question of dignity, on a level with 
Scripture, 5 but has also a strong — and as expe^ 
rience has abundantly proved, — an increasing 
tendency to supersede it. A regular and com* 
pact system of theology, professedly compiled 
from Scripture, or from " Scripture and Tradi- 
tion blended together,"* if it be that which, 
after all, we must acquiesce in as infallible* 
whether it accord or not with what appears 
to us to be the sense of Scripture, being 
more compendious and methodical than the 

r See Dr. Hawkins on the Duty of Private Judgment. 

8 Among the Parliamentarians at the time of the Civil War, 
there were many, — at first a great majority, — who professed to 
obey the King's commands, as notified to them by Parliament^ 
and levied forces in the King's name, against his person. If any 
one admitted Parliament to be the sole and authoritative interpret 
ter and expounder of the regal commands, and this, without any 
check from any other power, it is plain that he virtually ad- 
mitted the sovereignty of that Parliament, just as much as if he 
had recognised their formal deposition of the King. The parallelism 
of this case with the one before us, is too obvious to need being 
dwelt on. 

* See Essay (Third Series) on " Undue Reliance on Human 
Authority." 



170 Use and Abuse of Human Instruction. [Essay II. 

Sacred Books themselves, will naturally be 
preferred by the learner. And all study, pro- 
perly so called, of the rest of Scripture,-*-(for 
on the above supposition, such a comment would 
be itself a part of Scripture, infallible and divine- 
ly inspired, as much as the rest) — all lively in- 
terest in the perusal, — would be nearly super- 
seded by such an inspired compendium of doc- 
trine ; to which alone, as being far the most 
convenient for that purpose, habitual reference 
would be made in any question that might arise. 
Both would be regarded, indeed, as of divine 
authority ; but the compendium, as the fused 
and purified metal ; the other, as the mine, con- 
taining the crude ore. 

abuse an o d f $ ®7. ^he uses are so important* 
st U ruction in " an d the abuses so dangerous, of the 
instruction which may be afforded by unin- 
spired Christian teachers, that it may be worth 
while still further to illustrate the subject by 
an analogy, homely perhaps and undignified, 
but which appears to me perfectly apposite, 
and fitted by its very familiarity to answer 
the better its purpose of affording explana- 
tion. 

The utility of what is called paper-currency 
is universally acknowledged and perceived. 
Without possessing any intrinsic value, it is a 
convenient representative of coins and ingots 



} 27.] Use and Abuse of Human Instruction. 171 

of the precious metals. And it possesses this 
character, from its being known or confidently 
believed, that those who issue it are ready, 
on demand, to exchange it for those precious 
metals. And the occurrence, from time to time, 
of this demand, and the constant liability to it, 
are the great check to an over-issue of the paper- 
money. But if paper-money be made a legal 
tender, and not convertible into gold and 
silver at the pleasure of the holder— if per- 
sons are required to receive it in payment, 
by an arbitrary decree of the Government, 
either that paper shall be considered as hav- 
ing an intrinsic value, or again, that it shall 
be considered as representing bullion, or 
land, u « or some other intrinsically valuable 
commodity, the existence and amount of which, 
and the ability of Government to produce it, 
are to be believed, not by the test of any one's 
demanding and obtaining payment, but on 
the word of the very Government that issues 
this inconvertible paper-currency, then, the 
consequences which ensue are well known. 
The precious metals gradually disappear, 
and a profusion of worthless paper alone 
remains. 

Even so it is with human teaching in pr ^f i {J U bJ 
religion. It his highly useful, as long oTdemand. 

u This was the case with the Assignats and Mandats of France. 

15 



172 Use and abuse of Human Instruction. [Essay II. 

as the instructors refer the People to Scripture, 
exhorting and assisting them to "prove all 
things and hold fast that which is right ;" — as 
long as the Church " ordains nothing contrary 
to God's word," — nothing, in short, beyond 
what a Christian Community is authorized 
both by the essential character of a Community, 
and by Christ's sanction, to enact ; and re- 
quires nothing to be believed as a point of Chris- 
tian faith " that may not be declared" x (i. e, 
satisfactorily proved) to be taken from Holy 
Scripture. But when a Church, or any of its 
Pastors, ceases to make this payment on de- 
mand — if I may so speak — of Seripture-proof, y 
and requires implicit faith, on human authority, 
in human dogmas or interpretations, all check 
is removed to the introduction of any conceiv- 
able amount of falsehood and superstition ; 
till human inventions may have overlaid and 
disfigured Gospel-truth, and Man's usurped 
authority have gradually superseded divine : 
even as was the case with the rabbinical Jews, 
who continued to profess the most devout rever- 
ence for the Mosaic Law, even at the time when 



x The word "declared" 13 likely to mislead the English 
reader, from its being ordinarily used in the present day in a dif- 
ferent sense. The Latin " declarare," of which it was evidently 
intended to be a translation, signifies " to make clear" — " to set forth 
plainly." 

y See Appendix, Note (M.) 



5 28.] The System of Reserve. 173 

we are told that " in vain they worshipped 
God, teaching for doctrines the commandments 
of men." z 

§ 28. It is worth remarking also R 2££ of 
that the persons who make this use of Tradi- 
tion, are often found distinctly advocating the 
deliberate suppression, in the instruction of 
the great mass of Christians, of a large por- 
tion of the Gospel-doctrines which are the 
most earnestly set forth in Scripture; as a 
sort of esoteric mystery, of which ordinary 
believers are unworthy, and which should be 
" reserved" as a reward for a long course of 
pious submission. This system of " reserve" 
or " economy" is vindicated, by studiously 
confounding it with the gradual initiation of 
Christians in the knowledge of their religion, 
in proportion as they are " able to bear it ;" 
i. e. able and willing to understand each point 
that is presented to their minds : and the neces- 
sity of gradual teaching, — of reading the first 
line of a passage before the second, — and the 
care requisite to avoid teaching any thing, which 
though true in itself, would be falsely under- 
stood by the hearers, is thus confounded with 
the system of withholding a portion of Gospel- 
truth from those able and willing to receive it; — 
the system of " shunning to set before men all 

2 See Dr. Hawkins on Tradition. 



174 The System of Reserve. [Essay II. 

the counsel of God," and of having one kind of 
religion for the initiated few, and another for the 
mass of the Christian World. Very different 
was the Apostle Paul's Gospel, which he assures 
us, " if it was hid, was hid from them that are 
lost" (men on the road to destruction, faollv- 
fiivovg), " whom the god of this world hath 
blinded." 

suppres- But the charge of teaching some- 

Gospei- thing different from what they in- 
amountto wardly believe, the advocates of this 

falsifies- J 

tion. system repel, by alleging that all they 

do teach is agreeable to Scripture, although 
they withhold a part, and do not teach all that 
is to be found in Scripture : as if this did not 
as effectually constitute two different religions 
as if they had added on something of their 
own. For, by expunging or suppressing at 
pleasure, that which remains may become 
totally different from what the religion would 
have been if exhibited as a whole. 

It has been remarked that every statute ex- 
isted in the block of marble from which it was 
carved ; and that the Sculptor merely discloses 
it, by removing the superfluous portions ; — that 
the Medicean Venus, for instance, has not in it 
a single particle which did not originally exist 
exactly in the same relative position as now ; 
the artist having added nothing, but merely 
taken away. Yet the statuie is as widely dif- 



} 28.] The System of Reserve. 175 

ferent a thing from the original block, as if some- 
thing had been added. What should we think 
of a man's pleading that such an image is not 
contemplated in the commandment against 
making an image, because it is not " made," as 
if it had been moulded, or cast, out of materials 
brought together for the purpose ? Should any 
one scruple to worship a moulded, but not a 
sculptured image, his scruple would not be 
more absurdly misplaced, than if he should 
hold himself bound, in his teaching, not to add 
on to Scripture any thing he did not believe to 
be true, but allowed to suppress any portions 
of Gospel-truth at his pleasure, and to exhibit 
to his People the remaining portions, as the 
whole system of their religion. 

It. may be added also, that as a Doctrines 

not clearly 

Christian teacher is not authorized revealed, 
either to suppress any portion of the Gospel as 
unfit for those disposed and able to receive it, 
or to inculcate as an essential portion of it, any 
thing not revealed in Scripture, but dependent 
on Tradition, whether alone or " blendid with 
Scripture," so, he ought not to insist on the 
acceptance, as essential, of any thing which, 
even though it may be satisfactorily proved 
from Scripture, yet is so slightly hinted at there, 
that till attention has been called to it, and the 
arguments by which it is supported, brought 
together, whole Churches for whole generations 
15* 



176 The System of Reserve. [Essay IL 

together, may have studied Scripture without 
finding it. I do not say that nothing of this 
character should be maintained, and supported 
by arguments which may satisfactorily prove 
it; but it should not be maintained as something 
necessary to Salvation, unless it is clearly re- 
vealed to an ordinary reader of candid mind. 

For instance, there are some who think that 
an intermediate state of consciousness, — and 
others, of unconsciousness,— between death 
and the resurrection, — may be proved from 
Scripture ; but I cannot think it justifiable to 
represent either opinion as an essential article 
of faith. 

Again the call of the Gentiles to be partakers 
with the Jews of the privileges of God's People, 
and the termination of the Mosaic dispensation, 
are contained, but not clearly revealed, in the 
Old Testament, and in the discourses of our 
Lord ; these doctrines are not so obviously con- 
tained there, as to make them an essential part 
of the Jewish faith. This, therefore, was a 
case in which a fresh and distinct declaration, 
supported by miraculous evidence, was fairly to 
be expected : and this was accordingly afforded. 
A distinct miraculous revelation was made to 
the Apostle Peter as to this very point. 9 

a According to our Lord's promise respecting the Holy Spirit : 
— " He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
remembrance,' 11 &c. 



( 29.] Unsound Reasons. 177 

<S29. In saying: that the essential unsound 

•> Jo reasous 

doctrines of Christianity are to be found aiTofiound 
in Scripture, or may be satisfactorily ones ' 
proved from it, and that the enactments of any 
Church, with a view to good government, 
"decency and order," derive a sufficient au- 
thorityyrom that very circumstance, inasmuch as 
the Apostle commands * us to u do all things 
decently and in order," and our Heavenly 
Master has given power to "bind and loose" 
in respect of such regulations, I do not mean to 
imply that such reasons always will, in fact, 
prove satisfactory to careless and uncandid rea- 
soners, — to the fanciful, the wilful, and the ar- 
rogant. But nothing is in reality gained by 
endeavouring to add force to sound reasons by 
the addition of unsound ones. To seek, when 
men will not listen to valid arguments, for some 
other arguments which they will listen to,, 
will, lam convinced, (to say nothing of its 
unfairness) be found in the end, to be unwise 
policy. 

Yet I cannot but suspect that the principles 
I have been deprecating must have been some- 
times maintained by persons, not altogether 
blind to the inconsistent consequences they lead 
to", but actuated by a desire of impressing on 
the minds of the multitude not only an addi- 
tional confidence in the doctrines of our Church,, 
but also that reverence, which is so often found 



178 Unsound Reasons. [Essay II. 

to be deficient, for Church-institutions and 
enactments, and for regularly ordained Chris- 
tian Ministers: and that they have been influ- 
enced by a dread of certain consequences 
as following from an adherence to what I have 
pointed out as the only sound and secure prin- 
ciples. b 

da^"e?°of a For instance, it has been thought dan- 
fnodifVan- gerous to acknowledge a power in any 
fSns! egu " Body of uninspired men to depart in 
the smallest degree from the recorded prece- 
dents of the earliest Churches : including (be 

b For instance, the view taken (see Thoughts on the Sabbath) 
of the Lord's Day, as a Church-festival observed in memory of 
Christ's resurrection on the first day of the week, and not in com- 
pliance with the Mosaic Law, I have seen objected to, on the 
ground that " men are apt not to pay so much deference to the 
enactments of the Church, as to express commands of Scripture." 
That is to say, although the Mosiac Law be not really binding on 
Christians (for, if it were, and the observance of the Lord's day 
were a part of it, that would supersede all need of other arguments) 
yet it is advisable to teach men that it is, in order that they may be 
the more ready to observe the Lord's Day. The Church therefore 
is to be represented, — and that, to men, who, by supposition are 
disposed to undervalue Church-authority, — as having taken the 
liberty to altera, divine commandment of acknowledged obligation, 
by changing the seventh day of the week for the first (besides 
alterations in the mode of observance) in compliance with a 
supposed tradition, that the Apostles sanctioned — which it is plain 
from Scripture they did not — this transference of the Sabbath. 
This is surely expecting an unreasonble deference for Church-au- 
thority from men who, it is supposed, are unwilling to yield to it 
such a deference as is reasonable. 



$ 29.] brought in aid of sound ones. 179 

it remembered by the way) those existing after 
the times of the Apostles, and therefore con- 
sisting, themselves, of uninspired men. And 
a danger there certainly is; a danger of the 
misuse of any power, privilege, or liberty, en- 
trusted to any one. The Christian course is 
beset by dangers. They are an essential part 
of our trial on Earth. We are required to be 
on our guard against them ; but we must never 
expect, here below, to be exempt from them. 
And there is nothing necessarily gained by 
exchanging one danger for another ; the danger 
of erring in our own judgment, for that of 
following imperfect, uncertain or corrupted tra- 
ditions. 

But to maintain the right of any Communi- 
ty — a Church, among others — to establish, 
abrogate, or alter, regulations and institutions 
of any kind, is understood by some as amount- 
ing to an approval of every thing that either 
ever has been done, or conceivably might be 
done, by virtue of that claim ; as if a sanc- 
tion were thus given to perpetual changes, 
the most rash, uncalled for, and irrational. 
But what is left to men's discretion, is not 
therefore meant to be left to their ^discre- 
tion. To maintain that a power exists, is not 
to maintain either that it matters not how it 
is used, or again that it cannot possibly be 
abused. 



180 Unsound Reasons [Essay II. 

The absurdity of such a mode of reasoning 
would be at once apparent in any other case. 
For instance, the Senate, Parliament, or other 
legislative Body of this or any other country, 
has clearly a right to pass or to reject any 
proposed law that is brought before it ; and has 
an equal right to do the one or the other ; now 
no one in his senses would understand by this, 
that it is equally right to do the one or the 
other : — that whatever is left to the legislator's 
decision, must be a matter of absolute indiffer- 
ence % and that whatever is to be determined 
by bis judgment i may fairly be determined ac- 
cording to his caprice. 
Abuse of A Church, — -and the same may be 

power not ^ 

argument sa id of a State,— -may so far abuse its 

against its * / 

existence, power, and exceed the just limits of 
that power, as to make enactments which a 
man may be bound in conscience to disobey^ ; 
as for instance, if either an ecclesiastical or a 
civil Government should command men (as the 
Roman Emperors did the early Christians) to 
join in acts of idolatrous worship ; or (as was 
done formerly towards the Saxon Clergy) to 
put away their wives. But this does not do 
away the truth of the general assertion that 
" the Powers that be are ordained of God ;" — 
that both civil and ecclesiastical Governments 
have a right to make enactments that are not 
contrary to religion or morality. 



5 29.] brought in aid of sound ones. 181 

And again ; even these enactments,— such 
as a State or a Church does possess a right to 
make, — it is not only conceivable, but highly 
probable, that there will be some which may 
appear to many persons, and perhaps with 
reason, to be not the very wisest and best- 
In such a case, a man is bound to do his best 
towards the alteration of those laws : c but he is 
not, in the mean time, exempted from obedience 
to laws which he may not fully approve/ 1 
For supposing his objections to any law to 
be well-founded, still, as infallibility does 
not exist among men, all professions and pre- 
cepts relative to the duty of submission to 
Government, would be nugatory, if that duty 
were to be suspended and remain in abey- 
ance, till an unerring government should 
arise. 

If any one, accordingly, is convinced that 
a certain Church is essentially unscriptural, 
he cannot with a sound conscience belong to its 
communion. But he may consistently adhere 
to it, even though he should be of opinion that 
in some non-essential points it has adopted re- 
gulations which are not the most expedient. 
He may still consistently hold these to be bind- 
ing, as coming from a competent authority ; 

e See " Appeal in behalf of Church-Government ;" (Houlston ;) 
a very able pamphlet. 

d See Sermon on Obedience to Laws. 



182 Difficulty of ascertaining [Essay II. 

though he may wish, that they had been, or 
that they should be, settled otherwise. 



Difficulty § 30. But as there are some persons 

of ascer- l 

taining un- who are too ready to separate trom any 

broken sue- _ . . 

cession. religious Community on slight grounds, 
or even through mere caprice, to " heap up to 
themselves teachers, having itching ears," it has 
been thought, — or at least maintained, — that 
the only way of affording complete satisfaction 
.and repose to the scrupulous, and of repressing 
schism, is to uphold, under the title of "Church- 
principles," the doctrine that no one is a mem- 
ber of Christ's Church, and an heir of the 
covenanted Gospel-promises, who is not under 
a Ministry ordained by Bishops descended in 
an unbroken chain from the Apostles. 

Now what is the degree of satisfactory as- 
surance that is thus afforded to the scrupu- 
lous consciences of any members of an Epis- 
copal Church ? If a man consider it as highly 
probable that the particular Minister at whose 
hands he receives the sacred Ordinances, 
is really thus apostolically descended, this 
is the very utmost point to which he can, 
with any semblance of reason, attain : and 
the more he reflects and inquires, the more 
cause for hesitation he will find. There is 
not a Minister in all Christendom who is 
able to trace up with any approach to certainty 



$ 30.] Unbroken Succession. 183 

his own spiritual pedigree. The sacramental 
virtue (for such it is, that is implied, — whether 
the term be used or not in the principle I have 
been speaking of) dependent on the imposition 
of hands, with a due observance of apostolical 
usages, by a Bishop, himself duly consecrated, 
after having been in like manner baptized 
into the Church, and ordained Deacon and 
Priest, — this sacramental virtue, if a single link 
of the chain be faulty, must, on the above prin- 
ciples, be utterly nullified ever after, in respect 
of ail the links that hang on that one* For if 
a Bishop has not been duly consecrated, or 
had not been, previously, rightly ordained, his 
Ordinations are null ; and so are the ministra- 
tions of those ordained by him ; and their Or- 
dination of others; (supposing any of the per- 
sons ordained by him to attain to the episcopal 
office) and so on, without end. The poisonous 
taint of informality > if it once creep in unde- 
tected, will spread the infection of nullity to an 
indefinite and irremediable extent. 

And who can undertake to pro- ll^ZT 7 
nounce that during that long period JarTfge^ 8 
usually designated as the Dark Ages, no such 
taint ever was introduced? Irregularities 
could not have been wholly excluded with- 
out a perpetual miracle; and that no such 
miraculous interference existed, we have even 
historical proof. Amidst the numerous cor- 
16 



184 Difficulty of ascertaining [Essay IL 

ruptions of doctrine and of practice, and gross 
superstitions, that crept in, during those ages, 
we find recorded descriptions not only of 
the profound ignorance and profligacy of life, 
of many of the Clergy, but also of the grossest 
irregularities in respect of discipline and form. 
We read of Bishops consecrated when mere 
children: — of men officiating who barely knew 
their letters — of Prelates expelled, and others 
put into their places, by violence; — of illiter- 
ate and profligate laymen, and habitual drunk- 
ards, admitted to Holy Orders ; and in short, 
of the prevalence of every kind of disorder, 
and reckless disregard of the decency which 
the Apostle enjoins. It is inconceivable that 
any one even moderately acquainted with 
history, can feel a certainty, or any approach 
to certainty, that, amidst all this confusion and 
corruption, every requisite form, was, in every 
instance, strictly adhered to, by men, many 
of them openly profane and secular, unre- 
strained by public opinion, through the gross 
ignorance of the population among which 
they lived ; and that no one not duly con- 
secrated or ordained, was admitted to sacred 
offices. 

Even in later and more civilized and enlight- 
ened times, the probability of an irregularity, 
though very greatly diminished, isyet diminished 
only, and not absolutely destroyed. Even in 



§ 30.] Unbroken Succession. 185 

the memory of persons living, there existed a 
Bishop concerning whom there was so much 
mystery and uncertainty prevailing as to, 
when, where, and by whom, he had been 
ordained, that doubts existed in the mind of 
many persons whether he had ever been 
ordained at all. I do not say that there was 
good ground for the suspicion ; but I speak 
of the fact, that it did prevail ; and that 
the circumstances of the case were such 
as to make manifest the possibility of such 
an irregularity occurring under such circum- 
stances. 

Now, let any one proceed on the hypothesis 
that there are, suppose, but a hundred links 
connecting any particular minister with the 
Apostles ; and let him even suppose that not 
above half of this number pass through such 
periods as admit of any possible irregularity ; 
and then, placing at the lowest estimate the 
probability of defectiveness in respect of each 
of the remaining fifty, taken separately, let him 
consider what amount of probability will result 
from the multiplying of the whole together. e 

e Supposing it to be one hundred to one, in each separate case, 
in favour of the legitimacy and regularity of the transmission, and 
the links to amount to fifty, (or any other number) the proba- 
bility of the unbroken continuity of the whole chain must he com- 

QO GG Go 

puted as — of -— of — -, &c. to the end of the whole fifty. Of 

100 100 100 

course, if different data are assumed, or a different system is adopted 
of computing the rate at which the uncertainty increases at each 



186 Difficulty of ascertaining [Essay II. 

The ultimate consequence must be, that any 
one who sincerely believes that his claim to the 
benefits of the Gospel-Covenant depends on his 
own Minister's claim to the supposed sacra- 
mental virtue of true Ordination, and this again, 
on perfect Apostolical Succession as above de- 
scribed, must be involved, in proportion as he 
reads, and inquires, and reflects, and reasons, 
on the subject, in the most distressing doubt 
and perplexity. 

It is no wonder, therefore, that the advocates 
of this theory studiously disparage reasoning, 
deprecate all exercise of the mind in reflection, 
decry appeals to evidence, and lament that 
even the power of reading should be imparted 
to the People. It is not without cause that 
they dread and lament " an Age of too much 
light," and wish to involve religion in "a 
solemn and awful gloom. " f It is not without 
cause that, having removed the Christian's 
confidence from a rock, to base it on sand, 
they forbid all prying curiosity to examine their 
foundation. 



step, the ultimate result will be different as to the degree of uncer- 
tainty; but when once it is made apparent that a considerable and 
continually-increasing uncertainty does exist, and that the result 
must be, in respect of any individual case, a matter of chance, it 
can be of no great consequence to ascertain precisely what the 
chances are on each side. 
f KXtnTj; Se re vvktos d^eiva^ 



{ 30.] Unbroken Succession. 187 

The fallacy, indeed, by which, ac- ™?Zt 
cording to the above principles, the J2/JE" 
Christian is taught to rest his own per- secession 
sonal hopes of salvation, on the indi- ofmen°and 
vidual claims to "Apostolical succes- dividual. 
sion" of the particular Minister he is placed 
under, is one so gross that few are thoughtless 
enough to be deceived by it in any case where 
Religion is not concerned ; — where, in short, 
a man has not been taught to make a virtue of 
uninquiring, unthinking, acquiescence. For the 
fallacy consists in confounding together the 
unbroken Apostolical succession of a Christian 
Ministry generally, and the same succession in 
an unbroken line, of this or that individual 
Minister. The existence of such an Order of 
men as Christian Ministers, continuously from 
the time of the Apostles to this day, is perhaps 
as complete a moral certainty, as any historical 
fact can be ; because (independently of the 
various incidental notices by historians, of such 
a class of persons) it is plain that if, at the pre- 
sent day, or a century ago, or ten centuries ago, 
a number of men had appeared in the world, 
professing (as our Clergy do now) to hold a 
recognised office in a Christian Church, to 
which they had been regularly appointed as 
successors to others, whose predecessors, in like 
manner, had held the same, and so on, from the 
times of the Apostles, — if, I say, such a pretence 
16* 



188 Difficulty of ascertaining Unbroken Succession.[Ess ay II . 

had been put forth by a set of men assuming 
an office which no one had ever heard of be- 
fore, — it is plain, that they would at once have 
been refuted and exposed. And as this will 
apply equally to each successive generation of 
Christian Ministers, till we come up to the time 
when the institution was confessedly new,— 
that is, to the time when Christian Ministers 
were appointed by the Apostles, who professed 
themselves eye-witnesses of the Resurrection, 
we have (as Leslie has remarked)^ a standing 
Monument, in the Christian Ministry, of the 
fact of that event as having been proclaimed 
immediately after the time when it was said 
to have occurred. This therefore is fairly 
brought forward as an evidence of its truth. 

But if each man's Christian hope, is made to 
rest on his receiving the Christian Ordinances at 
the hands of a Minister to whom the sacramental 
virtue that gives efficacy to those Ordinances, 
has been transmitted in unbroken succession from 
hand to hand, every thing must depend on that 
particular Minister : and his claim is by no 
means established from our merely establishing 
the uninterrupted existence of such a class of men 
as Christian Ministers. "> You teach me," a 
man might say, "that my salvation depends on 
the possession by you-^-the particular Pastor 

s Short Method with Deists, 



$ 31.] Increased Danger of Schism. 189 

under whom I am placed — of a certain quali- 
fication ; and when I ask for the proof that 
you possess it, you prove to me that it is pos- 
sessed generally, by a certain class of persons 
of whom you are one, and probably by a large 
majority of them !" How ridiculous it would 
be thought, if a man laying claim to the throne 
of some Country should attempt to establish 
it without producing and proving his own 
pedigree, merely by showing that that Country 
had always been under hereditary regal govern- 



§ 31. Then as to the danger of increased 
Schism, nothing can be more calculated scSfsm. 
to create or increase it, than to superadd to all 
the other sources of difference among Christians, 
those additional ones resulting from the theory 
we are considering. Besides all the divisions 
liable to arise relative to the essential doctrines 
of Scripture, and to the most important points 
in any system of Church-Government, Schisms, 
the most difficult to be remedied, may be crea- 
ted by that theory from individual cases of alleg- 
ed irregularity. 

A most remarkable instance of this schism of 
is furnished in the celebrated schism of tists. 
the Donatists, in Africa, in the beginning of the 
fourth century b . They differed in no point of 

h See Waddington's Ecclesiastical History, &c. 



190 Increased Danger of Schism. [Essay II. 

doctrine or Church-discipline from their oppo- 
nents, the Orthodox, (that is, the predominant 
party;) but were at issue with them on the 
question as to an alleged irregularity in the ap- 
pointment of a certain Bishop ; whose ordina- 
tions consequently of other Bishops and Pres- 
byters, they inferred, were void ; and hence, 
the baptisms administered by those ministers 
were also void, and their whole ministration 
profane ; so that they re-baptized all who joined 
their party, (as I believe the Greek Church 
does, to this day) and regarded their opponents 
in the light of Heathen. And this schism dis- 
tracted the greater part of the Eastern por- 
tion of the Church for upwards of two hundred 
years. 

schismof And an attempt was made in the last 
jurors. century, by the Non-jurors, to introduce, 
in these realms, the everspreading canker of a 
similar schism. They denied the episcopal 
character of those who had succeeded the dis- 
placed prelates ; and, consequently, regarded as 
invalid the Orders conferred by them ; thus 
preparing the way for all the consequences re- 
sulting from the Donatist-schism. 

The sect died away before long, through a 
happy inconsistency on the part of its sup- 
porters ; who admitted the claims of the substi- 
tuted Bishops on the death of their predecessors ; 
though it is hard to understand how those who 



$ 31.] Increased Danger of Schism. 191 

were not true Bishops at first, could become 
such, through a subsequent event, without 
being re-consecrated : the Presbyters ordained 
by them, becoming at the same time true Pres- 
b3 7 ters, though their Ordination had been inva- 
lid. It seems like maintaining that a woman, 
who, during her husband's life-time mar- 
ries another man, and has a family, be- 
comes, on her real husband's death, the law- 
ful wife of the other, and her children legiti- 
mate. 

More recently still, an attempt was^made of 
the same nature, on the occasion of the sup- 
pression (as it was called) of some of the Irish 
Bishoprics ; that is, the union of them with 
others. 1 It has been publicly and distinctly 
declared that an effort was made to represent 
this measure as amounting to an "interruption 
of Apostolical succession :" though it is not very 
easy to say how this was to be made out, even 
on the above principles. k 

1 1 do not mean to maintain that this was seriously helieved by all 
those — some of them men of intelligence and learning — who put 
it forward. It may very likely have been one of their " exoteric 
doctrines," designed only for the Multitude. But, he this as it may, 
they evidently meant that it should be believed by others, if not by 
themselves. 

k According to this view, the Apostolical succession must have 
been long since lost in some parts of England, and the greatest 
part of Ireland. For there were many such unions existing before 
the Act in question : such as Cork and Ross, Ferns and Leighlin, 
and several others. 



192 Irregular Formations [Essay II. 

In short, there is no imaginable limit to the 
schisms that may be introduced and kept up 
through the operation of these principles, advo- 
cated especially with a view to the repression 
of schism. 

irregular § 32. Some have imagined however 

formations . . . . . , 

ofchristian that since no rule is laid down in Scrip- 

Commuui- 

,ies - ture as to the number of persons re- 

quisite to form a Christian Community, or as to 
the mode in which any such Community is to 
be set dti foot, it must follow that persons left 
to Scripture as their sole decisive authority, 
will be at liberty, — all, and any of them, — 
to form and dissolve religious Communities 
at their pleasure ;— to join, and withdraw 
from, any Church, as freely as if it were a 
Club or other such institution ; and to ap- 
point themselves or others to any ministerial 
Office, as freely as the members of any 
Club elect Presidents, Secretaries, and other 
functionaries. 

And it is true that this licence has been as- 
sumed by weak and rash men ; who have thus 
given occasion to persons of the class who 
" mistake reverse of wrong for right," to aim at 
counteracting one error by advocating another. 
But so far are these anarchical consequences 
from being a just result of the principles here 
maintained, that I doubt whether, on any other 



} 32.] of Christian Communities. 193 

subject besides Religion, a man would not be 
reckoned insane who should so reason. 

To take the analogous case of civil ^^V *^ 
government : hardly any one in his Seat™" 
right mind would attempt a universal justifi- 
cation of rebellion, on the ground that men 
may be placed in circumstances which mo- 
rally authorize them to do what, in totally 
different circumstances, wouldbe rebellion. 

Suppose, for instance, a number of emigrants, 
bound for some Colony, to be shipwrecked on 
a desert island, such as afforded them means 
of subsistence, but precluded all reasonable 
hope of their quitting it : or suppose them to 
have taken refuge there as fugitives from into- 
lerable oppression, or from a conquering enemy; 
(no uncommon case in ancient times) or to be 
the sole survivors of a pestilence or earthquake 
which had destroyed the rest of the nation : no 
one would maintain that these shipwrecked 
emigrants or fugitives, were bound, or were per- 
mitted, to remain — themselves and their pos- 
terity — in a state of anarchy, on the ground of 
there being no one among them who could 
claim hereditary or other right to govern them. 
It would clearly be right, and wise, and neces- 
sary, that they should regard themselves as 
constituted, by the very circumstance of their 
position, a civil Community ; and should as- 
semble to enact such laws, and appoint such 



194 Irregular Formations [Essay II. 

magistrates, as they might judge most suita- 
ble to their circumstances. And obedience to 
those laws and governors, as soon as the Con- 
stitution was settled, would become a moral 
duty to all the members of the Community : and 
this, even though some of the enactments might 
appear, or might be, (though not at variance 
with the immutable laws of morality, yet) con- 
siderably short of perfection. The King, or 
other Magistrates thus appointed, would be le- 
gitimate rulers : and the laws framed by them, 
valid and binding. The precept of " submit- 
ting to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's 
sake," and of " rendering to all, their due," 
would apply in this case as completely as in 
respect of any Civil Community that exists. 
Extraordi- And yet these men would have 
genciesjus- been doing what, in ordinary circum* 
would stances, would have been manifest re 1 - 

otherwise m 

be wrong, belhon. For if these same, or any other 
individuals, subjects of our own, or of any ex- 
isting Government, were to take upon them- 
selves to throw off their allegiance to it, without 
any such necessity, and were to pretend to con- 
stitute themselves an independent Sovereign- 
State, and proceed to elect a King or Senate,^- 
to frame a Constitution, and to enact laws, all 
resting on their own self-created authority, no 
one would doubt, that, however wise in them- 
selves those laws might be, and however per- 



§ 32.] of Christian Communities. 195 

sonally well-qualified the magistrates thus ap- 
pointed, — they would not be legitimate govern- 
ors, or valid laws : and those who had so at- 
tempted to establish them, would be manifest 
rebels. 

A similar rule will apply to the case of ecclesi- 
astical Communities. If any number of individ- 
uals, — not having the plea of an express revela- 
tion to the purpose, or again, of their deliberate 
conviction that the Church they separate from is 
fundamentally erroneous and unscriptural — take 
upon themselves to constitute a new Church, ac- 
cording to their own fancy, and to appoint them- 
selves or others to ministerial offices, without 
having any recognised authority to do so, derived 
from the existing religious Community of which 
they were members, but merely on the ground 
of supposed personal qualifications, then, how- 
ever wise in themselves the institutions, and 
however, in themselves, fit, the persons ap- 
pointed, there can be no more doubt that the 
guilt of Schism would be incurred in this case, 
than that the other, just mentioned, would be 
an act of rebellion. 

Or again, if certain members, lay or clerical* 
of any Church, should think fit to meet together 
and constitute themselves a kind of Synod for 
deciding some question of orthodoxy, and should 
proceed to denounce publicly one of their bre- 
thren as a heretic, there can be no doubt that— 
17 



196 Irregular Formations [Essay II. 

whether his doctrines were right or wrong, — 
these, his self-appointed judges (whatever ab- 
horrence of Schism they might express, and 
however strongly they might put forth their own 
claim to be emphatically the advocates of Church- 
unity) would be altogether schismatical in their 
procedure. If the Apostle's censure of " those 
that cause divisions" does not apply to this case, 
it may fairly be asked what meaning his words 
can have. 

On the other hand, men placed in the situa- 
tion of the supposed shipwrecked emigrants or 
exiles above spoken of, would be as much au- 
thorized, and bound, to aim at the advantages 
of a Religious, as of a Civil Community ; only 
with this difference, arising out of the essential 
characters of the two respectively; that they 
would not be authorized in the one case, as they 
would, in the other, to resort to secular coercion} 
Compliance with civil regulations, may, and 
must, be absolutely enforced ; but not so, the pro- 
fession of a particular Creed, or conformity to 
a particular mode of Worship. 

christian Another point of distinction be- 

Communi- , r . r /t *i l 

ties design- tween the formation 01 a Civil and 

ed to afford ___,.. , "~ . 

facilities for Ecclesiastical Constitution arises out 

intercom- , . . , . 

munion. f this circumstance, that it was 
plainly the design of the Apostles that there 

^ee Appendix, Note (A.) 



\S2.] of Christian Communities. 197 

should be as much as possible of free intercom- 
munion, and facility of interchange of members, 
among Christian Churches. Consequently, 
when it is said, here and elsewhere, that each 
of these is bound to make such enactments 
respecting non-essentials, as its governors may 
judge best, it is not meant that they have to 
consider merely what would seem in itself best, 
and supposing they were the only Christian Com- 
munity existing ; but they must also take care 
to raise up no unnecessary hairier of separation 
between the members of their own and of other 
— essentially pure — Churches. Any arrange- 
ments or institutions, &c. which would tend to 
check the free intercourse, and weaken the ties 
of brotherhood, among all Christ's followers 
throughout the world, should be as much as 
possible avoided. 

This, however, is no exception to the general 
rule, but an application of it. For, those enact- 
ments which should tend to defeat, without 
necessity, one of the objects which the Apostles 
proposed, would (however good in themselves) 
evidently not be the best, for that very reason. 

But it would be absurd to maintain christians 

. ii* i bound, 

that men placed in such a situation as when P os- 
has been here supposed, are to be shut combine as 

< a Christian 

out, generation after generation, from society, 
the christian Ordinances, and the Gospel-cove- 
nant. Their circumstances would constitute 



198 Irregular Formations [Essay II. 

them (as many as could be brought to agree in 
the essentials of faith and christian worship) a 
christian Community ; and would require them 
to do that which, if done without such neces- 
sity, would be schismatical. To make regu- 
lations for the Church thus constituted, and to 
appoint as its ministers the fittest persons that 
could be found among them, and to celebrate 
the christian Rites, would be a proceeding not 
productive, as in the other case, of division, 
but of union. And it would be a compliance, — 
clearly pointed out to them by the Providence 
which had placed them in that situation, — with 
the manifest will of our Heavenly Master, that 
Christians should live in a religious Commu> 
nity, under such Officers and such Regulations 
as are essential to the existence of every Com- 
munity. 

To say that Christian ministers thus appointed, 
would be, to all intents and purposes, real legiti- 
mate Christian ministers, and thattheOrdinances 
of such a Church would be no less valid and 
efficacious (supposing always that they are not 
in themselves superstitious and unscriptural) 
than those of any other Church, is merely to 
say in other words, that it would be a real 
Christian Church; possessing, consequently, in 
common with all Communities of whatever kind, 
the essential rights of a Community to have 
Officers and Bye-laws > and possessing also, in 



1 82.] of Christian Communities. 199 

common with all Christian Communities, (i. e. 
Churches) the especial sanction of our Lord, 
and his promise of ratifying (" binding in Hea- 
ven") its enactments." 1 

It really does seem not only absurd, it could not 

J J m have been 

but even impious, to represent it as j^ Lord*. 
the Lord's will, that persons who are ™ e Jj u s d h e ould 
believers in his Gospel, should, in con- £om SelV hi S 
sequence of the circumstances in which Church - 
his Providence has placed them, condemn them- 
selves and their posterity to live as Heathens, 
instead of conforming as closely as those cir- 
cumstances will allow, to the institutions and 
directions of Christ and his Apostles, by com- 
bining themselves into a Christian Society, regu- 
lated and conducted, in the best way they can, 
on Gospel-principles. And if such a Society 
does enjoy the divine- blessing and favour, it 
follows that its proceedings, its enactments, its 
officers, are legitimate and apostolical, as long 
as they are conformable to the principles which 
the Apostles have laid down and recorded for 
our use : even as those (of whatever race " after 
the flesh") who embraced and faithfully adhered 
to the Gospel, were called by the Apostle, 
"Abraham's seed," n and "the Israel of God." 

m See in Appendix, Note (N,) a quotation from an Appeal 
of Luther's in 1520, cited in D'Aubigne's " History of the Re- 
formation." 

n Rom. v. 16. ° Gal. vi. 16. 

17* 



200 Presumption in favour of Essay II. 

Apostolical The Ministers of such a Church as 

succession .... , . i i • 1 i 

dependent 1 have been supposing, would rightly 

on adhe- * , • ,, i 

rence to claim "Apostolical succession, be- 

apostolical *■ 

principles, cause they would rightfully hold the 
same office which the Apostles conferred on 
those " Elders whom they ordained in every 
City." And it is impossible for any one of sound 
mind, seriously to believe that the recognition 
of such claims in a case like the one here sup- 
posed, affords a fair precedent for men who 
should wantonly secede from the Church to 
which they had belonged, and take upon them- 
selves to ordain Ministers and form a new and in- 
dependent Church according to their own fancy. 

Presump- § 33. I have spoken of seceding 
favour of from " the Church to which they 

the Church . J 

to which had belonged," because, in each 

one actually ° 

belongs. case the presumption* 1 is in favour of 
that ; not, necessarily, in favour of the Church 
to which a man's ancestors may formerly have 
belonged,** or the one which can boast the 
greatest antiquity, or, which is established by the 

P See Rhetoric, Part i. ch. 3, § 2. 

1 Accordingly, if we suppose the case of the Romish Church 
reforming all its errors, and returning to the state of its greatest 
purity, although we should with joy "give the right hand of fellow- 
ship" to its members, it would be utterly unjustifiable for any mem- 
ber of our Church to throw off his allegiance to it and go over to 
the Church of Rome, on the ground of his ancestors having be- 
longed to that; nor would such a reform confer on the Bishop of 
Rome any power over the Anglican Church. 



§ 33.] the Church one belongs to. 201 

Civil Government. The tJhurch, whatever 
it is, in which each man was originally en- 
rolled a member, has the first claim to his al- 
legiance, supposing there is nothing in its doc- 
trines or practice which he is convinced is 
unscriptural and wrong. He is of course 
bound, in deference to the higher authority of 
Christ and the Apostles, to renounce its com- 
munion, if he does feel such a conviction ; but 
not, from motives of mere fancy, or worldly ad- 
vantage. 

All separation, in short, must be ti ^" se e K; 
either a duty, or a sin. r * s *" ty or a 

r It may be necessary perhaps here to remind the reader that 
I am speaking of separating from, and renouncing, some Church: 
not, of merely joining and becoming a member of some other. 
This latter does not imply the former, except when there is some 
essential point of difference between the two Churches. When 
there is none, a man's becoming a member of another Church on 
changing his residence, — as for instance, a member of the Anglican 
Church, on going to reside in Scotland or America, where Churches 
essentially in agreement with ours exist — this is the very closest 
conformity to the principles and practice of the Apostles. In 
their days (and it would have been the same, always, and every- 
where, had their principles been universally adhered to) a Chris- 
tian of the Church of Corinth for instance, on taking up his abode, 
suppose, at Ephesus, where there was a Christian Church, differing 
perhaps in some non-essential customs and forms, but agreeing in 
essentials, was received into that Church as a brother ; and this 
was so far from implying his separation from the former, that he 
would be received into the Ephesian Church only on letters of re- 
commendation* from the Corinthian. 



'R-ziaroAai (jvoraTiKal. See 2 Cor.. 



202 Presumption in favour of the Church, <$-c. [Essay H. 

to^ojfform 11 And ^Christian's obligation to sub- 
i anc h e e s o r f a mit to tne ( n °t unseriptural) Laws and 
dep'nLT Officers of his Church, being founded 
SfaJityoTfts on the principles above explained, is 
foJmaSon. independent of all considerations of 
the regularity or irregularity of the original 
formation of that Church ; else indeed, no one 
could be certain what were his duties as a mem- 
ber of a certain Church, without entering on 
long and difficult researches into ecclesiastical 
history: such as are far beyond the reach 
of ninety-nine persons in the hundred. A 
certain. Church may, suppose, have originated 
in a rash separation from another Church, on 
insufficient grounds ; but for an individual to 
separate from it merely for that reason, would 
be not escaping but incurring the guilt of 
Schism. s 

It may indeed often be very desirable to at- 
tempt the re-union of Christian Communities 
that had been separated on insufficient grounds : 
but no individual is justified in renouncing, from 
motives of mere taste or convenience, the com- 
munion of the Church he belongs to, if he can 
remain in it with a safe conscience. 

As for the question, what are, and what are 
not, to be accounted essential points, — what 

6 For some very sensible and valuable remarks on this subject; 
see Hinds's History of the Rise and Early Progress of Christianity,, 
vol. ii. p. 42. 



$ 34.] Apprehension of unsettling Men's Minds. 203 

will, and what will not, justify, and require, 
separation, — it would be foreign from the 
present purpose to discuss it. The differences 
between two Churches may appear essential, 
and non-essential, to two persons equally con- 
scientious, and equally careful in forming a 
judgment. All I am insisting on is, that the 
matter is one which does call for that careful 
and conscientious judgment. A man should, 
deliberately, and with a sense of deep responsi- 
bility, make up his mind, as to what is, or is 
not, to the best of his judgment, essential, before 
he resolves on taking, or not taking, a step 
which must in every case be either a duty or a 
sin. 

§ 34. It may be said however that it £* v £$lll 
is superfluous to enter at all on the insetting** 
consideration of what would be allowa- ™*nds. 
ble and right under some supposed circum- 
stances, which are not our own ; and to 
decide beforehand for some imaginary emer- 
gency, that may never occur ; at least never to. 
ourselves. 

It may be represented as an empty and 
speculative question to inquire whether our 
Ministry derive their authority from the Church, 
or the Church from them, as long as the rights 
both of the Church and its Ministers, are but 
acknowledged. And if any one is satisfied 



204 Apprehension of unsettling Men's Minds. [Essay IL 

both that our Ministers are ordained by per- 
sons descended in an unbroken series of Epis- 
copal Ordination from the Apostles, and also 
that they are the regularly-appointed and 
recognized Officers of a Christian Community 
constituted on Apostolical principles, it may be 
represented as impertinent to trouble him with 
questions as to which of these two, things it is 
that gives them the rightful claim to that 
deference which, as it is, he is willing to pay to 
them. 

It is in this way that the attempt is often 
made, and not seldom with success, to evade 
the discussion of important general principles, 
and thus to secure an uninquiring acquiescence 
in false assumptions which will not stand the 
test of examination, and which when once 
admitted will lead to very important and very 
mischievous practical results. Why should we 
unsettle men's minds— one may hear it said — >• 
by speculations on any imaginary or impossible 
case, when they are satisfied as they are ? As 
long as any one will but believe and do what he 
ought, what matters it whether his reasons for 
acquiescence are the most valid or not ? And 
then, when, in this way, men's minds have been 
" settled" in false notions, some of them are 
likely to follow out a wrong principle into the 
pernicious consequences to which it fairly leads ; 
arid others again become most dangerously, and 



§34.] Apprehension of unsettling Men's Minds. 205 

perhaps incurably, ^settled, when the sandy 
foundation they have been taught to build on 
happens to be washed away. 

If, as has been above remarked, a man is 
taught that view of Apostolical succession which 
makes every thing depend on the unbroken 
series between the apostles and the individual 
minister from whom each man receives the 
Sacraments, or the individual bishop conferring 
Ordination, — a fact which never can be ascer- 
tained with certainty — and he is then pre- 
sented with proofs, not of this, but of a different 
fact instead, — the Apostolical succession, ge- 
nerally, of the great Body of the ministers of 
his Church ; — and if he is taught to acquiesce 
with consolatory confidence in the regulations 
and ordinances of the Church, not, on such 
grounds as have been above laid down, but, on 
the ground of their exact conformity to the 
model of the " ancient Church," which exact 
conformity is, in many cases, more than can be 
satisfactorily proved, and in some, can be 
easily disproved, the result of the attempt 
so to settle men's minds, must be, with many, 
the most distressing doubt and perplexity. And 
others again, when taught to " blend with Scrip- 
ture," as a portion of Revelation, the traditions 
of the first three, or first four, or first seven, or 
fifteen centuries, may find it difficult to un- 
derstand, when, and where, and why, they 



206 Supposed Case not useless, even if impossible. [Essay II. 

are to stop short abruptly in the application 
of the principles they have received : why, 
if one general Council is to be admitted as 
having divine authority to bind the conscience, 
and supersede private judgment, another is to 
be rejected by private judgment : and that too, 
by the judgment of men who are not agreed 
with each other, or even with themselves, whe- 
ther the council of Trent, for instance, is to be 
regarded as the beginning of the Romish Apos- 
tasy, or as a promising omen of improvement 
in the Church of Rome. That man must be 
strangely constituted who can find consolatory 
security for his faith in such a guide ; — who 
can derive satisfactory confidence from the ora* 
cles of a Proteus ! 

supposed § 35. Moreover, the supposed case 
ther'anim- of Christians deprived of regular suc- 
one, nor cession of Episcopally-ordained Mu> 

useless even . . 

if it were, isters, and left to determine what course 
they ought, under such circumstances, to take, 
is not inconceivable, or impossible, or unprece- 
dented ; nor again, even if it were, would the con- 
sideration of such a question be necessarily an 
unprofitable speculation ; because it will often 
happen that by putting a supposed case (even 
when such as could not possibly occur) we can 
the most easily and most clearly ascertain on 
what pri?icijple a person is acting. Thus 



§ 35.] Supposed Case not useless, even if impossible. 207 

when Plato* puts the impossible case of your 
possessing the ring of Gyges, u which, ac- 
cording to the legend, could make the bearer 
invisible, and demands how you would then 
act, he applies a kind of test, which decomposes, 
as the chemists say, the complex mass of 
motives that may influence a man, and calls 
on you to consider whether you abstain 
from bad actions through fear of the censure 
of the world, or from abhorrence of evil in 
itself. 

So again — to take another instance — if any 
one is asked how men ought to act when living 
under a Government professing, and enforcing 
under penalties, a false religion, and requiring 
of its subjects idolatrous worship, and other 
practices contrary to Scripture, if he should ob- 
ject to the question, on the ground that there is 

* " Atque hoc loco, philosophi quidam, minime mali illi 
quidem, sed non satis acuti, fictam et commentitiam fabu- 
lam prolatam dicunt a Platone: quasi vero illc, aut factum 
id esse, aut fieri potuisse defendat. Heec est vis hujus an- 
nuli et hujus exempli, si nemo sciturus, nemo ne suspieaturus 
quidem sit, cum aliquid, divitiarum, potentiae, domiuationis, 
libidinis, causa, feceris, — si id diis hominibusque futurum sit 
semper ignotum, sisne facturus. Negant id fieri posse. Quan- 
quam potest id quidem ; sed queero, quod negant posse, id si 
posset, quidnam faceretit? Urgent rustice sane: negant enim 
posse, et in eo perstant. ■ Hoc verbum quid valeat, non 
vident. Cum enim quaerimus, si possint celare, quid facturi sint, 
non quaerimus, possintne celare," &c. — Cic. de Off. b. iii. 
c 9. 

u Rhetoric, pt. i. c. 2, § 8. 

18 



208 Supposed Case not useless, even if impossible. [Essay II. 

no prospect of his being so circumstanced, and 
that he is living, and may calculate on con- 
tinuing to live, under a Government which 
inculcates a true religion, it would be justly in- 
ferred that he was conscious of something 
unsound in his principles, from his evading a 
test that goes to ascertain whether he regards 
religious truth and the command of God, as 
things to be adhered to at all events, or merely, 
when coinciding with the requisitions of Gov- 
ernment. 

So also, in the present case : when a Church * 
possesses Ministers who are the regularly- 
appointed officers of a Christian Community 
constituted on evangelical principles, and who 
are also ordained by persons descended in an 
unbroken series from those ordained by the 
Apostles, the two circumstances coincide, on 
which, according to the two different principles, 
respective!}', above treated of, the legitimacy 
and apostolical commission of Christian Minis- 
ters may be made to depend. Now in order to 
judge fairly, and to state clearly the decision, 
which foundation we resolve to rest on, it is re- 
quisite to propose a case (even supposing — 
which is very far from being the fact — that it 
could not actually occur) in which these two 
circumstances do not come together ; and then 
to pronounce which it is that we regard as 
essential. 



§ 36.] Cases of a moral Necessity for Separation. 209 

§ 36. As a matter of fact, there can m ^\ B °ll 
be no reasonable doubt that the Apos- sepStJn' 
ties did " ordain Elders in every city." Even 
if there had been no rec ord of their doing so, 
we might have inferred it from the very fact 
of their instituting Christian Societies; since 
every Society must have Officers; and the 
founder of a Society will naturally take upon 
him to nominate the first Officers ; as well as 
to " set in order the rest" of the appointments. 1 
And those Officers, acting in the name and on 
the behalf of the Community, would, of course, 
appoint others to succeed them ; and so on, 
from generation to generation. As long as 
every thing went on correctly in each Church, 
and its doctrines and practices remained sound, 
there would be nothing to interrupt this orderly 
course of things. But whenever it happened 
that the Rulers of any Church departed from 
the Christian faith and practice which it is their 
business to preserve,-— when, for instance, they 
corrupted their worship with superstitions, made 
a traffic of " indulgences," and "taught for 
doctrines the commandments of men," by 
"blending" human traditions with Scripture, 
and making them, either wholly or in part, the 
substitute, as a rule of faith, for the records of 
inspiration, — in any such case, it became the 
duty of all those who perceived the inroads of 

* 1 Cor, 



210 Cases of a moral Necessity for Separation. [Essay II. 

such errors, to aim at the reformation of them ; 
and, when alt or any of the Spiritual Pastors of 
such a Church obstinately stood out against 
reform, to throw oft' their subjection to persons 
so abusing their sacred office, and, at all events, 
reform themselves as they best could. It is 
as plain a duty for men so circumstanced to 
obey their Heavenly Master, and forsake those 
who have apostatized from Him, as it would 
be for the loyal portion of a garrison of 
soldiers to revolt from a general who had 
turned traitor to his King, and was betraying 
the city into the enemy's hands. So far 
from being rebellious subjects in thus revolt- 
ing, they would be guilty of rebellion if they 
did not. 

In like manner, the very circumstances in 
which such a Body of reformers, as I have been 
alluding to, are placed, confer on them that 
independence which they would have been 
unjustifiable in assuming wantonly. The right 
is bestowed, and the duty imposed on them, of 
separation from the unreformed, which, under 
opposite circumstances, would have beenschis- 
matical. They are authorized, and bound, by the 
very nature of their situation, either to subsist 
as a distinct Community, or to join some other 
Church ; y even as the vitality which Nature has 

y An instance of this was very recently afforded by the 
people of Z.illerthal, in the Austrian dominions ; who, being 



$ 36.] Cases of a moral Necessity for Separation. 211 

conferred on the scion of a tree, enables it, when 
cut off from the parent-stock, either to push 
forth fresh roots of its own, or to unite, as a 
graft, with the stock of some kindred tree. 
It is for men so circumstanced to do conduct 

their best according to their own delib- conscienti- 

• i i • t/y- i ous seced * 

erate judgment, to meet their dimcul- ers. 

ties, to supply their deficiencies, and to avail 
themselves of whatever advantages may lie 
within their reach. If they have among their 
number, Christian Ministers of several Orders, 
or of one Order, — if they can obtain a supply 
of such from some other sound Church, — or if 
the}' can unite themselves to such a Church with 
advantage to the great ultimate objects for which 
Churches were originally instituted, — all these 
are advantages not to be lightly thrown away. 
But the unavoidable absence of any of these 
advantages, not only is not to be imputed to 
them as a matter of blame, but, by imposing the 
necessity, creates the right, and the duty, of sup- 
plying their deficiencies as they best can. 
Much as they may regret being driven to the 
alternative, they ought not to hesitate in their 
decision, when their choice lies between ad- 



deliberately convinced of the errors of the Church in which they 
had been brought up, underwent, in consequence of their refusal of 
compliance, a long series of vexatious persecution, and ultimately 
forsook their home, and found refuge and freedom of conscience in, 
the territory of Prussia. 

18* 



212 Mistakes to which Reformers are liable. [Essay II. 

herence to the human Governors of a Church, 
and to its Divine Master ; — between " the form 
of godliness, and the power thereof ;" — between 
the means and the end ,*-— between unbroken 
apostolical succession of individuals, and un- 
corrupted Gospel principles.. 

tobfgJSd 3 - § 37. Persons so situated ought to be 
byRefolm- °n their guard against two opposite mis- 
eomp^iied takes :■ the one is, to underrate the pri- 

to separa- .<• P «. . . ,« . , 

vileges o-t a Christian Community, by 



tion. 



holding themselves altogether debarred from 
the exercise of such powers as naturally and 
essenually belong to every Community; the 
other mistake is to imagine that whatever they 
have an undoubted right to do, they would 
necessarily be right in doing. In no other sub- 
ject perhaps would such a confusion of thought 
be likely to arise, as is implied by the confound- 
ing together of things so different as thes*e two. 
Although the legislature (as I have above re- 
marked) has an undoubted right to pass,, or to 
reject, any Bill, a man would be deemed in- 
sane who should thence infer that they are 
equally right in doing either the one or the other. 
So also the Governors of a Church are left, in 
respect of ordinances and regulations not pre- 
scribed or forbidden in Scripture, to their own 
judgment ; but they are bound to act accordingto 
the best of their judgment. What is left to their 



$ 37.] Mistakes to which Refoi-mers are liable. 213- 

discretion is not therefore left to their caprice ; 
nor are they to regard every point that is not 
absolutely essential, as therefore absolutely in- 
different. 

They have an undoubted right, according 
to the principles I have been endeavouring to 
establish, to appoint such Orders of Christian 
Ministers, and to allot to each such functions, 
as they judge most conductive to the great 
ends of the Society : they may assign to the 
whole, or to a portion of these, the office of 
ordaining others as their successors ; they may 
appoint one superintendent of the rest, or several; 
underlhe title of Patriarch, Archbishop, Bishop, 
Moderator, or any other that they may prefer ; 
they may make the appointment of them for 
life, or for a limited period, — by election, or by 
rotation, — with a greater, or a less extensive, 
jurisdiction ; and they have a similar discre- 
tionary power with respect to Liturgies, Festi- 
vals, Ceremonies, and whatever else is left at 
large in the Scriptures* 

Now to infer that all possible de- Provinceef 
terminations of all these and similar d,scret,OD - 
points, would be equally expedient, and equal- 
ly wise, and good, would be an absurdity so 
gross that in no other case not connected with 
religion, would men need even to be warned 
against it. In fact, it would go to do away 
the very existence of any such attributes 



214 Mistakes to ivhich Reformers are liable. [Essay II. 

as " wisdom," — " prudence," — " discretion," 
■ — "judgment," &c. altogether: for there is 
evidently no room for the exercise of them 
in matters not left to our choice, and in which 
the course we are to pursue is decided for 
us, and distinctly marked out, by a higher 
Authority ; nor again is there any room for 
them in matters where there is not a right 
and a wrong, — a better and a worse ; and 
where the decision is a matter of total indif- 
ference ; as in the choice between two similar 
sheets of paper to begin writing on, when 
both are lying within one's reach. The sole 
province of prudent and cautious deliberation 
is in cases which are left to our decision, 
and in which we may make a better or a worse 
decision. And yet I should not wonder if 
some persons were to take for granted that 
anyone who does not presume at once to ex- 
elude from the Gospel-covenant all professed 
Christians who do not strictly conform to what 
we regard as the purest primitive practice, 
and to deny altogether the validity of all their 
Ordinances, must, as a matter of course, place 
exactly on a level a system founded on the 
most diligent, sober, and deliberate inquiry 
after ancient and well-tried models, and the 
most rash, ill-advised, and fanciful innovations 
that ever were devised by ignorance or pre- 
sumption. As well might one infer from the 



5 37.] Mistakes to which, Reformers are liable. 215 

Apostle's declaration that " the Powers that be 
are ordained of God," his complete approval of 
the Constitution of the Roman Empire, of its 
laws, and of the mode of appointing Emperors ; 
or his total indifference as to the best or the 
worst system of civil Government. If all laws 
were equally good, or if wise laws and unwise 
were a matter of indifference, or if it did not 
rest with each Government to make either wise 
or unwise enactments, what room could there 
be for political wisdom ? 

The mistakes, however, which I instancesof 

the above 

have been alluding to, have been not mistakes, 
unfrequently made in what relates to the powers 
possessed by Christian Communities, and the 
mode of exercising these powers. For instance, 
at the time of the great Reformation, some Bo- 
dies of Christians found themselves without 
any Bishop among their number ; and formed 
what are called Presb}'terian Churches. Some 
members accordingly of these Churches have 
felt themselves called upon in self-defence to 
decry Episcopacy, as a form of Government 
not instituted by the Apostles, and, consequently, 
as one which all Christians are bound to reject. 
Erroneous as, I am convinced, their premiss 
was, they were, on the above principles, still 
more erroneous in drawing that conclusion from 
it. Others of them again lamented their want 
of Episcopacy j considering that form of gen 



216 Mistakes to which Reformers are liable. [Essay II. 

vernment as having the apostolical sanction, and 
consequently, as obligatory and indispensable to be 
retained, when possible ; but to them, unattain- 
able, from the interruption of episcopal succes- 
sion. And while some presume to exclude all 
Presbyterians from the pale of Christ's universal 
Church — professing at the same time, in words, 
what they virtually nullify by their interpreta- 
tions, that " Holy Scripture contains all things 
necessary to salvation" others again compas- 
sionate and sympathize with the supposed 
unavoidable deficiency in the Presbyterian 
Churches. 

Now that all these parties are mistaken in 
their views (though a mere mistake, when not 
accompanied with a want of charity, is not de- 
serving of severe censure) must be evident to 
any one who embraces the principles which in 
the outset I endeavoured to establish. It fol- 
lows from those principles, that the Bodies of 
Christians we have been speaking of, had full 
power to retain, or to restore, or to originate, 
whatever form of Church-government they, in 
their deliberate and cautious judgment, might 
deem best for the time, and country, and persons, 
they had to deal with ; whether exactly similar, 
or not, to those introduced by the Apostles ; 
provided nothing were done contrary to Gospel- 
precepts and principles. They were, therefore, 
perfectly at liberty to appoint Bishops, even if 



$ 37.] Mistakes to which Reformers are liable. 217 

they had none that had joined in the reforma- 
tion ; or to discontinue the appointment, even if 
they had: whichever they were convinced was 
the most conducive, under existing circum- 
stances, to the great objects of all Church-go- 
vernment. And though their decision of this 
point ought to have been very greatly influ- 
enced by their belief as to what were the 
forms adopted by the Apostles (which must 
have been not only wise, but the very wisest, 
for those times and persons) they had no reason 
to hold themselves absolutely bound to adhere, 
always and every where, to those original 
models. Indeed, to so considerable a degree 
have all Churches judged themselves at liberty 
to depart from the exact model of the earliest 
institutions — especially (as I formerly remark- 
ed) in respect of that important change intro- 
duced, — whether wisely or unwisely, — by, I 
believe, all of what are called Episcopal 
Churches ; that of having several bishops in one 
Church instead of making each Diocese, as 
appears to have been the apostolical system, an 
entire and distinct Church ; — so considerable, 
I say, is the liberty in this respect, that has 
been assumed by all Churches, that those who 
speak of all Christians being strictly bound to 
conform in every point to the exact pattern of 
the primitive institutions, can hardly wonder if 
they find imputed to them either great want of 



318 Seduction of the Feelings and Imagination. [Essay II. 

knowledge, or of reflection, in themselves, or 
else, a design to take advantage of the igno- 
rance or inattention of others. 



vSSTT § 38 « l have specified the want of 
affeeiingl " attentive reflection" in applying 
Sa?ioi? lagl " rightly in practice the knowledge men 
do possess as tending to foster erroneous notions, 
because it is probably both a more common 
and a more dangerous defect than mere want 
of sufficient knowledge. And it may be added, 
that it arises not so often from original defi- 
ciency in the mental powers, as from neglect to 
exercise thern. There are many who inadver- 
tently, and not a few who advisedly and de- 
signedly, resign themselves, in all matters per- 
taining to morals or religion, to the impressions 
produced on their imagination and feelings ; 
and rather applaud than reproach themselves 
for not awaiting the decisions of calm judgment, 
or for allowing their judgment to be biassed. 
To such persons, there is, it must be acknow- 
ledged, something very captivating and seduc- 
tive in the notions I have been censuring ; and not 
the less, from their being somewhat vague and 
dimly apprehended, incapableof abidingthe test 
of sober examination, and invested with some of 
that " mysterious and solemn gloom," which has 
been put forth expressly by some of their advo- 
cates, as a recommendation. There is something 



5 33.] Seduction of the Feelings and Imagination. 219 

to many minds awfully and mystically sub- 
lime in the idea of the "decisions of the Catho- 
lic Church," and of "Catholic Councils, con- 
vened in the name of Christ, and whose delibe- 
rations are overruled, and their decrees au- 
thoritative," — -in the idea of the " Sacramen- 
tal character of Ordination," conferred by per- 
sons who have derived a mystical virtue from 
the successive imposition of hands up to the 
times of the Apostles ; — and of the "priestly" 
character, (that of Hiereus) thus imparted, 
and the " Sacrifices" offered at an " altar ;" 
— of a " primitive doctrine always to be found 
somewhere in the Catholic traditions," &c. : 
especially when these matters are treated of in 
solemn and imposing language, of that pecu- 
liar kind of dazzling mistiness whose effect is 
to convey, at first, to ordinary readers, a strik- 
ing impression, with an appearance of being 
perfectly intelligible at the first glance, but 
to become more obscure and doubtful at the 
second glance, and more and more so, the 
more attentively it is studied by a reader 
of clear understanding ; so as to leave him 
utterly in doubt, at the last, which of several 
meanings it is meant to convey, or whether any 
at all. 

The rule of "omne ignotum pro mirifico," 
applies most emphatically to such doctrines 
treated of in such language. The very sim- 
19 



220 Seduction of the Feelings and Imagination. [Essay II* 

plicity and plainness of the reasoning by which, 
in the foregoing pages, the divine authority of a 
Christian Church, and consequently of its regu- 
lations and its ministers, are deduced direct 
from the sanction given by Christ Himself as 
interpreted by his Apostles, is likely to be, to 
some minds, no recommendation, but the con- 
trary. 

iikliy ws to And as men are of course less like- 
ciergy dthe ty to exercise a clear and unbiassed 
judgment in respect of any theory which tends 
especially to exalt their own persons, and in- 
vest them with mysterious powers and awful 
dignity, the Clergy accordingly are under 
a peculiar temptation 2 to lean too favourably, 
and with too little of rigorous examination, 
towards a system which confers the more 
elevation and grandeur on them, in propor- 
tion as it detracts from the claims of the en- 
tire Community. It is not the most flattering 
to them to be urged to say continually, not 
only in words, but by their conduct, " We 
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, 
and us, your Servants for Jesus' sake ;" — to be 
taught that they are merely the Functionaries 
of the particular Church of which they are 



1 The minds of many persons among the Laity are so constitu- 
ted as to make the same temptation very little less powerful to 
them, than to the Priesthood ; for reasons set forth in the Essay 
(3d Series) on " Vicarious Religion." 



§ 88.] Seduction of the Feelings and Imagination. 221 

members, — that it is in that capacity only that 
they derive their station and power from Christ, 
by virtue of the sanction given by Him to 
Christian Communities ; — that their authority 
therefore comes direct from the Society so 
constituted, in whose name and behalf they 
act, as its reprensentatives, just to that extent 
to which it has empowered and directed them 
to act. These views do indeed leave them a 
most awfully important and dignified office, 
as Servants in "the House of God," — (the 
" Temple of the Holy Ghost,") — as Stewards 
(i. e. dispensers; oixovdpoi) of divine truth to 
his People, and as Messengers from Christ, (so 
far as they " set forth his true and lively word, 
and duly administer his Holy Sacraments,") 
as having been appointed conformably to his 
will. But although their title is thus placed 
on the secure basis of a clear divine sanc- 
tion given, once for all, to every regul a reap- 
pointed Minister of an}- Christian Community 
constituted on Gospel-principles, instead of 
being made to depend on a long chain, the 
soundness of many of whose links cannot be 
ascertained, yet this last is a system more 
flattering to human weakness ; inasmuch as it 
representsthe Priesthood as comparatively inde- 
pendent of each particular Church, and derives 
their Church's authority rather from them than 



222 Seduction of the Feelings and Imagination. [Essay II. 

theirs from it. And accordingly so strong is 
the prejudice in the minds of many persons in 
favour of this system, that to rest the claims 
of a Christian Ministry on the basis of the 
divinely -sanctioned institution of a Christian 
Church, would appear to them to be making 
the Ministry altogether a human ordinance, 
though in truth, its claim to be a divine Ordi- 
nance rests on that very sanction : so com- 
pletely do they lose sight of the whole charac- 
ter of a Church, and of a Community. I re- 
member seeing a censure passed on some one 
who had presumed to appoint another as a 
Bishop ; not, on the ground (which would have 
been a very just one) of his having no authority 
from any Church to make the appointment, 
but on the ground of his not being himself a 
Bishop ; for how — it was urged — can a spring 
rise above the level of its source ? bow can an 
individual appoint another to an ecclesiastical 
office higher than he himself holds? How in- 
deed, — it might have been added— can any in- 
dividual, whether Bishop or not, appoint another 
to any office,^high or low-sunless authorized 
by the Community to do so? For an indi- 
vidual to pretend to create another a King, 
or a Magistrate of any other description, or the 
humblest civil Functionary,- — even though he 
were himself a King,— without lawful authority 



$ 38.] Seduction of the Feelings and Imagination. 223 

from the Community to make suck appointment, 
would be regarded as a most extravagant and 
absurd assumption. On the other hand, a Com- 
munity, and consequently those acting under its 
sanction, may appoint a man to an office higher 
than is possessed by any of the individuals who 
perform that act ; as is the case, for instance, 
in the election of a member of Parliament. 
And in the case of the supposed shipwrecked 
emigrants above adverted to, no reasonable man 
could doubt their right to elect one of their 
number as their King. But in the case of eccle- 
siastical Communities, many persons are found 
to advocate that fanciful and groundless system 
which goes to deprive these of all the rights which 
Christ's sanction of such a Community confers. 
For, according to this system, the sac- ma ^™ r t ° h f e 
ramental virtue of Holy Orders, which l^wh 
is indispensable for all the christian Or- fromthatof 
dinances and means of Grace, is inhe- [ e rs. 
rent indefeasibly in each individual, who has 
derived it, in no degree from any particular 
Community, but solely from the Bishop whose 
hands w T ere laid on him ; who derived his power 
to administer this sacrament, altogether from 
Consecration by another Bishop — not necessari- 
ly a member of the same particular Church, 
but obtaining his power again from another ; and 
so on, up to the apostolic times. On this sys- 
tem the Church is made a sort of appendage to 
19* 



224 Seduction of the Feelings and Imagination. [Essay II . 

the Priesthood ; not, the Ministry, to the 
Church. a A People separated from their Min- 
isters by some incurable disagreement as to 
Christian doctrine, even supposing these last to 
have occasioned it by an utter apostasy from 
Gospel truth,- — would be left (supposing they 
could not obtain other ministers qualified by the 
same kind of transmission of sacramental vir- 
tue) totally and finally shut out from the pale 
of Christ's* universal Church, and from his 
" covenanted mercies ;" while the Ministers, on 
the contrary, though they might be prohibited 
by civil authority, or prevented by physical 
force, from exercising their functions within a 
particular district, would still, even though 
antichristian in doctrine and in life, retain 
their office and dignity unimpaired,— the sac- 
ramental virtue conferred on them by Ordina- 
tion, and the consequent efficacy of their acts, 
undiminished. 



a That pernicious popular error, which confounds the Church 
with the Clergy (see note to § 33,) as if the Spiritual Com- 
munity consisted only of its Officers, is partly kept up perhaps 
by men's neglecting to notice one peculiarity belonging to 
Christ's kingdom, at its first establishment : viz. that it did, 
then, consist of Ministers only ; though it was by no means designed 
so to continue. All the Disciples who constituted the infant 
Church were those destined to be employed in various offices there- 
in : so that an inattentive reader is liable to confound together what 
our Lord said to them as Ministers, and what as Members; — as 
Rulers of a Church, and as the Church itself. 



§ 39.] Case of deposed Biskops and Presbyters. 225 

§ 39. And this is not merely an in- d £*** d o{ 
ference fairly deducibie from the prin- PresbyteS? 
ciples of the system. I have even met with 
persons who acknowledged that, if a Bishop, of 
our own Church for instance, who had been, 
for some crime, removed and degraded by regu- 
lar process, should think proper afterwards to 
ordain men Priests or Deacons, though he and 
they would be legally punishable, still his Ordi- 
nations would be valid, and these men conse- 
quently (however morally unfit) real Clergy- 
men, capable of exercising the spiritual func- 
tions. This is to recognise a fearful power, and 
that, placed in the very worst hands, of produ- 
cing and keeping up schism with something of 
an apparent divine sanction to give it strength. 5 
For on this principle, a Bishop of some other 
Church — the Roman-catholic for instance, or 
the Greek — who should have been ejected from 
his Diocese, might take upon him to ordain 
men according to the rites of our Church, and 
we should be bound to recognise his Ordinations 
as valid. 

I need hardly remark, that, according to the 
principles I have been endeavouring to maintain, 
a Bishop when removed from his Diocese, 
(whether for any crime, or otherwise) and not 
appointed to any other, though he may continue 

b See above, § 32. 



226 Case of deposed Bishops and Presbyters. [Essay II. 

a member of the episcopal Order, (unless 
regularly removed from it by competent au- 
thority, ) ceases altogether, ipso facto, to be 
a Bishop, in respect of episcopal functions; 
and has no more right to ordain, or to per- 
form any other act, in the capacity of a 
Bishop, than a Layman would have : that 
is, till the same, or some other Christian Church 
shall think proper to receive him in that ca- 
pacity/ 1 

If indeed any Church should be so very unwise 
as to recognise as Clergymen persons ordained 
by a deprived Bishop, these would undoubtedly 
be Ministers of that Church ; because that recog- 
nition would constitute them such; and a Chris- 
tian Community has power (though in that case 
there would be a gross abuse of its power) to 
determine who shall be its Officers. But what I 

c For it is evident that as, in respect of Church-regulations, 
the powers of "binding'' and of "loosing" have, equally, the 
divine sanction, so, the power of any Christian Church to admit 
any one, either simply into the number of its Members, or into any 
particular Order or Office, implies a power to remove him from 
either, when the case 6hall be such as to call for his removal. 

d For a Bishop, it should be observed, does not, in becoming 
such, enter on anew Profession, (as he did on taking orders) but 
only on a new description of Office in his profession. A person may 
indeed, as I have said, continue to belong to a certain Order of 
Clergy, though with suspended functions; but the important point 
to be insisted on is, that no official acts have any validity but what 
is derived from the Community to which, in each case, the Officer 
belongs. 



$ 39.] Case of deposed Bishops and Presbyters. 227 

am contending against, is, the notion of an 
inherent indefeasible sacramental virtue con- 
veyed by the imposition of hands, and giving 
validity to the official acts, regular or irregular, 
of the persons possessing it. And this does 
seem to me a most pernicious as well as ground- 
less tenet, tending to destroy the rightful autho- 
rity of a Church, by unduly exalting the pre- 
tended privileges of its Functionaries. 

On the same principle which has been now 
set forth in respect of Bishops, the acts of a 
Presbyter, or Deacon, or other Minister, of any 
Church cease to be valid, as soon as ever the 
Christian Community in which he was ap- 
pointed, withdraws its sanction from his acts. 
If another Church think fit to receive him as a 
Minister, they have an undoubted right to do 
so ; and he then becomes a Minister of that 
Church. So he does also, when not expelled 
from the Society to which he originally be- 
longed, supposing the Church to which he 
transfers himself thinks jit to recognise the 
Ordinations of the other ; which they may do, 
or refuse to do, entirely at their own discretion. 
This is a point which every Church has a full 
right to determine according to its own judg- 
ment. 

And as for the individual himself who is 
regularly deprived by his Church, if, on be- 
coming a Clergyman, he engaged (as is re- 



228 Case of deposed Bishops and Presbyters. [Essay II. 

quired by, I believe, most existing Churches) 
that he would follow no other profession, 6 of 
course he cannot absolve himself from that en- 
gagement ; but must continue so far a Clergy- 
man, though with suspended functions. More- 
over a Church has a right, — though I think such 
a regulation a very unwise one, — to recognise 
as valid the acts of a degraded Minister ; 
(while subjecting him nevertheless to penalties 
for performing such acts) or of a Layman. 

Concerning several points of this class, — 
such as the validity of lay-baptism, or of bap- 
tism by heretics or schismatics, &c. questions 
have been often raised, which have been in- 
volved in much unnecessary perplexity, from 
its being common to mix up together what are 
in fact several distinct questions, though relating 
to the same subject. For instance, in respect of 
the validity of Lay-baptism, three important 
and perfectly distinct questions may be raised; 
no one of which is answered by the answering, 
either way, of the others : viz. 1st. What has a 
Church the right to determine as to this 
point ? 2dly. What is the wisest and best 

e It would be, I am convinced, very advantageous that this rule 
should be modified as regards Deacons. We might avail ourselves 
of the services of some very useful assistants, if we would admit to 
this subordinate office some who could not maintain themselves 
wholly, without resorting (as the Apostle Paul did) to some secular 
employment. 



{ 34.] Arguments for Tradition not clear. 229 

determination it can make ? and, 3dly. What 
has this or that particular Church actimlly 
determined ? Now persons who are agreed 
concerning the answer to one of these ques- 
tions, may yet differ concerning the others ; 
and vice versa.* 

§ 40. But to return to the conside- system of 

,, r , , , tradiliooists 

ration, generally, ot the whole system incapable of 
of what is called "Catholic tradition," ported by 
&c. which I have, been censuring; it is meats- 
calculated, as has been said, to produce at the 
first glance a striking and imposing effect, and 
to recommend itself strongly to the imagination 
and the feelings of some persons.: but will not 
stand the test of a close examination. The 
advocates of these doctrines, accordingly, 
either from a consciousness of this, or else 
from indistinctness in their own conception, 
often set them forth with something of oracular 
obscurity and ambiguity, half concealed behind 
a veil, as it were, of mystery ; as something of 
which the full import and complete proof were 
to be reserved for a chosen few. And when 
clear evidence is demanded of a sufficient 
foundation for the high pretensions put forth, 
and the implicit submission that is demanded, 
we are sometimes met by a rebuke of the 

f See Appendix, Note (O.) 






230 Arguments for the System of [Essay II. 

" pride of human intellect," and of the pre- 
sumptuous expectation of having every thing 
that we are to believe made perfectly level to 
our understanding, and satisfactorily explained. 

No one, it may be said, would believe in 
God, if he were to insist on first obtaining a 
clear and full comprehension of the nature and 
attributes of such a Being ; an explanation, — 
such as no man of sense would think of giving, 
or of seeking, — of the divine attributes, brought 
down to the capacity of such a Being as Man. 
Nor would any one believe in the Christian 
Revelation, if he were to require, previously, 
to have a clear and full comprehension of the 
mysteries of the Incarnation, of the Redemp- 
tion, of the Trinity, and of every thing else ap- 
pertaining to the Gospel-scheme. We must 
content ourselves, therefore, we are told, with 
faint, indistinct, and imperfect notions on reli- 
gious subjects, unless we would incur deserved 
censure for want of faith. 

How often and how successfully the fallacy 
here sketched out has been employed, is really 
wonderful, considering how totally different and 
entirely unconnected are the two things which 
are thus confounded together ; the clear or in- 
distinct notion of the subject-matter itself, — of 
the fact or proposition — that is before us ; and, 
the clear or indistinct notion of the evidence of 
it, — of the reasons for believing it. A moment's 



$ 40.] Tradition not clear. 231 

reflection is sufficient for any one to perceive 
the difference between the two ; and yet, in the 
loose language of careless or sophistical argu- 
ment, they are continually confused together, 
and spoken of indiscriminately, as if they were 
the same thing. 

Every one, whether possessing Chris- {gi Stll^!e- 
tian faith or not, believes firmly, — and f h e e nsio e "i. of 
must believe, — and that, on the clearest SThe *«&- 
evidence, — in the existence of many Ct t°o be 

. . . i a iii i confound- 

things concerning which he has but a ed. 
very imperfect knowledge, and can form but 
indistinct and confused ideas of their nature ; 
while to believe in whatever is proposed to us 
without any clear proof that it is true, — with an 
imperfect and indistinct apprehension of any 
reason for believing it, — is usually regarded as a 
mark of credulous weakness. And on the other 
hand, some description, narrative, or statement, 
may be, in itself, perfectly clear and intelligible, 
and yet may be very doubtful as to its truth, 
or may be wholly undeserving of credit. 

For instance, there is, I suppose, no one who 
seriously doubts the existence of something 
which we call Soul — or Mind — be it Substance 
or Attribute, material or immaterial — and of 
the mutual connexion between it and the Body. 
Yet how very faint and imperfect a notion it is 
that we can form of it, and of many of its 
phenomena that are of daily occurrence ! The 
20 



232 Arguments for Tradition not clear. [Ess at II. 

partial suspension of mental and bodily func- 
tions during Sleep, — the effects of opium and 
other drugs, on both body and mind ;■ — the in- 
fluence again exercised by volition, and by va- 
rious mental emotions, on the muscles, and on 
other parts of the bodily frame, and many other 
of these phenomena, have exercised for ages 
the ingenuity of the ablest men to find even 
any approximation towards but an imperfect 
explanation of them. Yet the evidence on which 
we believe in the reality of these and of many 
other things no less dimly and partially under- 
stood, is perfect. 

On the other hand, the characters, transac- 
tions, &c. represented by dramatic writers, or 
described by historians, are often as clearly in- 
telligible as it is possible for any thing to be ; 
yet from the total want of evidence, or from the 
want of clear and decisive evidence, as to their 
reality, we regard them as either entire fictions, 
or mixtures of fable and truth, or as more or 
less likely to have actually existed.^ The 
character and conduct of Lear, for instance, or 
Othello, of Hamlet, and Macbeth, are perfect- 
ly intelligible ; though it is very doubtful how 
far the tales which suggested to Shakspeare 
the idea of most of his dramas had any foun- 
dation in fact, or w r ere originally fictitious. 

8 See Rhetoric, part i. c. 2, § 2. " On the plausible and the 
historically probable." 



) 41.] Fallacies on Religious Subjects. 233 

Many again of the Orations recorded by the 
ancient Greek and Roman historians are as 
easily and plainly to be understood as any 
that are reported in our own times ; but in 
what degree each of these is a faithful record 
of what was actually spoken, is a point on which 
we have, in some cases, a slight and imperfect 
evidence; and in others, none that deserves the 
name. 



Fallacies 
resorted to 
ou religious 



§ 41. In all subjects where religion 
is not concerned, nooneofordinar3 T good g U u b je C ' 
sense ever confounds together two things so 
dissimilar and unconnected as those I have been 
speaking of. But in what pertains to religion, 
the fallacy is, as I have said, often introduced. 
Yet Religion does not, in this respect, really 
differ from other subjects. 

Our Saviour's character and his teaching were 
matter of wondering perplexity to all around 
Him ; even in a far greater degree than after 
the establishment of his Kingdom, on his per- 
sonal ministry being completed ; both because 
the Jews were full of the expectation of a to- 
tally different kind of Deliverer, and because 
great part of his discourses were not even de- 
signed to be fully intelligible, at the time, to his 
own disciples; but to be explained afterwards 
by the occurrence of the events He alluded to. 
Some of his followers, accordingly, " went back 



234 Fallacies on Religious Subjects. [Essay II. 

and walked no more with Him," on the occa- 
sion of one of these discourses. But the Apos- 
tles, who adhered to Him, did so, neither from 
having any clearer notions concerning his re- 
velations, (for we often find it recorded that 
" they understood not this saying," &c.) nor 
again, from being satisfied to believe without 
any clear proof of his high pretensions ; but 
because they "believed, and were sure that 
He was the Christ, the Son of the living God," 
on such evidence as He had Himself appealed 
to : " the works that I do in my Father's name, 
they bear witness of me." Dim, and indistinct, 
and imperfect as were still their notions (as, to 
a great degree, ours must be also) concerning 
" the Son of God," it was no indistinct or im- 
perfect evidence on which they believed that 

He was so. 

A converse case is that of the several false 
Christs who afterwards arose. " I am come," 
says our Lord, " in my Father's name," (with 
such manifestations of divine power as testified 
his coming from God) " and ye receive me not ; 
if another shall come in his own name," (viz. 
requiring acceptance on his own bare word, 
without any miraculous credentials) " him ye 
will receive." 11 Their teaching, their pretensions, 
apd promises, were as clearly intelligible to the 

h See Sermon on the "Name Emmanuel;" and also Cruden's 
Concordance on the word "Name.''' 



$ 42.] False Views of what is Faith. 235 

greater part of the Jews — because falling in 
with the prevailing belief and expectations, — as 
those of Jesus had been (even to his own dis- 
ciples) obscure, perplexing, or unintelligible. 
Accordingly, vast multitudes followed these 
pretenders, without requiring any clear and 
sufficient evidence of the truth of their preten- 
sions : and they followed them to their own and 
their Country's ruin. 

The very history of our own religion, there- 
fore, supplies us here with an illustration of the 
distinction I have been speaking of. On the 
one side we have a revelation, itself dimly and 
partially understood, and doubtful, in great 
part, as to its meaning, but with clear evidence 
that it really came from God : on the other, a 
pretended revelation, containing, to those it was 
proposed to, no doubts or difficulties as to its 
sense and its design, but supported by no evi- 
dence that could satisfy an unprejudiced mind, 
bent on the attainment of truth. 

% 42. However plausible then the False views 

T . . . . of what is 

system 1 have been objecting to may faith. 
appear to any one, — however imposing and 
mysteriously sublime, — however gratifying and 
consolatory to the feelings — let him not there- 
fore neglect to inquire for the proofs by which 
its high pretensions are to be sustained ; but 
rather examine with the more care the founda- 
20* 



236 False Views of what is Faith. [Essay II. 

tion on which so vast a superstructure is made 
to rest. Let no one be deterred from this by 
fierce denunciations against the presumptuous- 
ness of all inquiry, and all use of private judg- 
ment in religious matters ; and by eulogies on 
the virtue of faith ; remembering that the 
"faith" thus recommended is precisely that 
want of faith for which those Jews just men- 
tioned were so severely condemned. They 
refused to listen to good evidence, and assented 
to that which was worthless. 
Danger of And let no one allow himself to be 

misdirected . 

piety. persuaded that he is evincing an hum- 
ble piety, acceptable to the "jealous God," in 
hastily giving credence to the pretensions to di- 
vine authority put forth in behalf of uninspired 
men, (not producing the miraculous "Signs of 
an Apostle") by those who are for blending 
"Tradition with Scripture," and " following the 
dictates of inspiration wherever found, whether 
in Scripture or Antiquity;" and who pronounce 
according to their own arbitrary choice, what are, 
and what are not, the general Councils whose 
"deliberations were overruled by the Holy Spirit, 
and their decrees consequently authoritative." 

" If any of these entice thee secretly, say- 
ing, Let us go after other Gods, thou shalt not 
hearken unto him." And those who speak in 
the name of Jehovah, saying, "Thus saith the 
Lord j when the Lord bath not spoken," are no 



§ 42.] False Views of what is Faith. 237 

more exempt from the guilt of enticing to idola- 
try, than the worshippers of Baal. 

The more disposed any one is to submissive 
veneration, the greater the importance of guard- 
ing him against mis-directed veneration ; — 
against false piety ; against reverencing as di- 
vine, what in reality is human. And the more 
awfully important any question is, the greater 
is the call for a rigid investigation of what may 
be urged on both sides ; that the decision may 
be made on sound, rational, and scriptural 
grounds, and not according to the dictates of 
excited feelings and imagination. 

And in these times especially, and useof 

r , . , . , terms op- 

Ill respect ot this subiect, men need to posnetotho 

i . • • i i • i thill » s de - 

be warned against a mistake which at seated. 

all times is not uncommon ; — that of allowing 
themselves to be misled by names and profes- 
sions, which are often — apparently by designed 
choice, — the most opposite to the things really 
intended. Thus, for instance, the term "Apos- 
tolical" is perpetually in the mouths of some 
who the most completely set at nought the 
principles which the Apostles have laid down 
for our guidance in the inspired writings ; and 
who virtually nullify these by blending with 
them the traditions of uninspired men. None 
more loudly censure the "pride of human intel- 
lect," and inculcate " pious humility," than those 
who are guilty of the profane presumption of 



238 False Views of what is Faith. [Essay II. 

exalting fallible Man to a level with God's in- 
spired messengers, and of deciding how far they 
shall impart, or " reserve," the truths which 
God has revealed. 1 The evils of " schism" 
again, are especially dwelt on by some who 
maintain principles the tendency of which has 
been shown to be to generate and perpetuate 
schism. To satisfy and " settle men's minds," 
is the profession of some whose principles lead 
(as has been above remarked) in proportion as 
each man has the most tender conscience, and 
the greatest anxiety about religious truth, to 
perplex and torment him with incurable doubts 
and scruples. " Church-principles" is a fa- 
vourite phrase with some who are, in fact, low- 
ering the just dignity and impairing the divine- 
ly-conferred rights of a Church. And none 
more loudly profess devoted and submissive 
admiration for the Anglican Church, than many 
of those who are emphatically opposed, in some 
of the most important points, to the principles 
on which our Reformers proceeded, and the 
spirit which actuated them throughout. 

If anyone is deliberately convinced that those 
their fundamental principles are erroneous, and 
that they rested the doctrines and institutions 
of our Church on a wrong basis, he deserves 
credit at least for honest consistency in leaving 
its communion. 

• See Appendix, Note (P.) 



§ 43.] Principles of the Anglican Church. 239 

§ 43. But to me it does appear, of Pr t £ e cil 5[" 
that — without attributing to them an f^ers. 116 " 
infallibility which they expressly disclaim — 
we may justly give our Reformers credit for 
such sound views, and such resolute adherence 
to evangelical truth, combined with such mo- 
deration and discretion, as were — considering 
the difficult circumstances they were placed 
in, — truly wonderful ; and such as are, in all 
times, and not least in the present, well worthy 
of imitation. It was their " wisdom to keep 
the mean" (as is expressed in the preface to 
the Book of Common Prayer) " between the 
two extremes, of too much stiffness in refusing, 
and too much easiness in admitting, any varia- 
tion." It was their wisdom also to "keep the 
mean" between the claims — never conflicting, 
except when misunderstood — of Scripture and 
of a Church. It was their wisdom to keep the 
mean between a slavish bondage to ancient 
precedents on the one hand, and a wanton and 
arrogant disregard of them, on the other. It 
was their wisdom — their pious and Christian 
wisdom — to keep the mean between rash and 
uncharitable judgment of other Churches, and 
equally rash carlessness, or fondness for inno- 
vation, in the regulations of their own. They 
conformed as closely as, in their judgment, 
circumstances would warrant, to the examples 
of the earliest Churches, without for an instant 



240 Principles of the Anglican Church. [Essay II. 

abandoning the rightful claims of their own, 
and without arrogantly pronouncing censure on 
those whose circumstances had led them to 
depart farther from those ancient precedents. 
Their " Faith" they drew from the Scriptures ; 
their " Hope" they based on the Scriptures; 
their " Charity" they learned from the Scrip- 
tures. 

A memberof the Anglican Church, — I mean, 
a sincere and thoroughly consistent memberof 
it — ought to feel a full conviction — and surely 
there are good grounds for that conviction, — 
both that the reforms they introduced were no 
more than were loudly called for by a regard 
for Gospel-truth, and that the Church as consti- 
tuted by them does possess, in its regulations 
and its officers, "Apostolical succession," in the 
sense in which it is essential that a Christian 
Community should possess it; viz : — in being a 
regularly-constituted Christian Society, framed 
in accordance with the fundamental princi- 
ples taught us by the Apostles and their great 
Master, 
successors Successors, in the Apostolic office, 

oftheApos- • . 

ties. the Apostles have none. As witnesses 

of the Resurrection ,-— as Dispensers of miraculous 
gifts, — as inspired Oracles of divine Revelation, — 
thejr have no successors. But as Members, — ^as 
Ministers, — as Governors — of Christian CommU" 
nities, their successors are the regularly-admit* 



j 43.} Principles of the Anglican Church. 241 

ted Members, — the lawfully-ordained Minis- 
ters, — the regular and recognised Governors, — 
of a regularly-subsisting Christian Church ; 
especially of a Church which, conforming in 
fundamentals, — as lam persuaded ours does, — 
to Gospel-principles, claims and exercises no 
rights beyond those which have the clear sanc- 
tion of our great Master, as being essentially 
implied in the very character of a Community. 
May the members of a Church which our 
Reformers cleansed of so much corruption, 
and placed on its true basis, have the grace to 
profit by their example, and follow out their 
fundamental principles ; labouring to be apos- 
tolical " not in mere words and names but in 
deed and truth ;" actuated by the same spirit 
which was found in those great and good men, 
so far as they decreed what is agreeable to 
God's word, and to the "pure and peaceable 
wisdom that is from above." And especially 
may all who profess Church-principles be care- 
ful to guard themselves and others against the 
two most prevailing errors of these days; — the 
two kinds of encroachments on the legitimate 
rights of a Church ; on the one side by pre- 
sumptuous and self-sufficient irregularities, and 
defiance of lawful authority ; and by the pre- 
tensions of supposed "Antiquity" and "Tradi- 
tion," on the other; that they may be enabled, 
under the divine blessing, to carry into effect 



242 Principles of the Anglican Church. [Essay II. 

more and more fully, and to bring to comple- 
tion " all the holy desires, all the good coun- 
sels, and all the just works" of our Reformers, 
and of all other our predecessors, as many as 
have endeavoured, in simplicity and truth, to 
conform to the instructions of our divine Master 
and his Apostles. 



APPENDIX 



21 



APPENDIX. 



Note (A.) Pp. 32, 35, 196. 

I have said, " secular empire" and a " monopoly of civil 
privileges and powers," because the rule does not apply to 
such as are purely ecclesiastical. The government of the 
Church (except as far as relates to temporalities, which are 
clearly the property of the Nation) ought to be monopo- 
lized by members of that Church. It is an unseemly, and 
in many respects, mischievous, anomaly, that, in purely re- 
ligious matters, any authority should be possessed (as is 
the case in this country) by those who are not members 
of the Religious Community. [See " Appeal on behalf of 
Church-government," a valuable and well- written pam- 
phlet. Houlston and Co.] 

It is true that the greatest evils that might arise from such 
an anomaly, — vexatious and oppressive interference in mat- 
ters that affect the conscience — do not arise in this country. 
No greater evil does result in practice than that (no small 
one however) of leaving the Church virtually without any 
legislative Government. But even if this were a less evil 
than it is, it would not be the less true as a principle, that 
none ought to have any share in the government (except — 
as I have said — in respect of secular matters) of a Church, 
who are not members of it. 



246 Appendix. 

There are some however who, from want of the habit of 
attentive reflection, are with difficulty brought to perceive 
the unsoundness of any false principle, except when it is 
fully developed in practice, and produces, actually, all the 
ill effects that it can consistently lead to. They cannot 
perceive which way a wind is blowing unless it blows a 
perfect gale. They not merely know a tree only by its 
fruits, but, except when it is actually bearing its fruits, and 
when it has brought them to the full perfection of poison- 
ous maturity, they do not recognise the tree. 

This defect may often be observed in men's judgments on 
another point also, — the employment of secular coercion in 
religious matters, with a view either to compel men to con- 
form to the faith and mode of worship prescribed by the 
Civil-government, or to give more or less of political ascen- 
dancy, and monopoly of civil rights and power, to those of a 
particular persuasion. To burn Dissenters under the title 
of heretics, — or to put them to a less cruel death, — or to 
banish, or fine and imprison them, — or to exclude from 
all, or from some, of the rights of citizens, and reduce, more 
or less, to the condition of vassals or Helots,, those who do 
not profess the religion which the State, as such,, enjoins, — 
these are widely different indeed, in respect of the actual 
amount of evil inflicted, or of good denied to individuals ; 
but the principle is in all these cases, the same ; viz : the 
assumed right of the Secular Government, as such, to in- 
terfere with men's conscience, and consequently (when the 
Government calls itself Christian), to make Christ's king- 
dom, so far, " a kingdom of this world." One of the causes 
that have contributed to the prevalence of this error, is, a 
mistaken view of the nature of that supremacy which is 
possessed by a political Community. 

The office of a Political Society or State, — to afford pro- 
tection (as all admit it is bound to do) to the citizens, ne- 
cessarily implies a coercive power over all of them ; and 
thence, over other Societies of which any of them may 
be members. Hence the Political Society must be (in 



Appendix. 247 

respect of power) the "highest;" and the Secular Gov- 
ernment — the person or persons in whom that power is ves- 
ted, being as it were the centre of gravity in which the 
whole physical force of the Community is collected, and 
acts, — must be, in this sense, " Supreme" or " Sovereign ;" 
(xvqiov, according to the ancient Greek Philosophers) 
as not being responsible or subject to any other. 

Much confusion of thought, and practical error has thence 
arisen in some minds ; especially, since, in any question 
that may arise whether the State (the Political Society) 
have gone beyond its own proper province, it must itself be, 
in practice, the judge ; there being no higher authority, on 
earth, to appeal to. It can do nothing (humanly speaking) 
unlawful^ since it has the power to make and absolutely 
enforce laws. 

It has been supposed, for instance, that since the Poli- 
tical Society is the highest (which in a certain sense it is) 
it must have for its ends the highest objects ; — that it ought 
to propose to itself, not, like any other kind of Society, 
some particular good, but, human good, generally ; — the 
welfare, in all respects, of the citizens ; — and that since 
every human good is therefore equally within the province 
of the Secular Government, the greatest good, — the moral 
welfare of the citizens, and the salvation of their souls, — 
must be especially its care : and hence follows the right, 
and the duty, of putting down heresy by the civil sword ; 
since if it would be unjustifiable for the Magistrate to tole- 
rate the circulation of counterfeit money, much more, that 
of false doctrine. And the moral as well as religious wel- 
fare of the citizens being entrusted to his care, he must 
take upon himself to determine both what is true Religion, 
and also what is morally right ; according to the doctrine 
of Hobbes in his "Leviathan." 

I have no doubt that many advocates of the principle in 
question do not mean to advocate either religious persecu- 
tion or Hobbism : but I am speaking of the logical con- 
nexion of these consequences with that principle. 
21* 



248 Appendix. 

All this perplexity and error might be escaped by merely 
recollecting that the Political Society has, like any other, 
its own appropriate objects ; and that any other desirable 
objects which it may be enabled, incidentally, to promote, 
more effectually than could otherwise be done, and without 
interfering with its main objects, are yet (however intrin- 
sically important) only secondary and subordinate ;, and 
that it is " Sovereign" only in this sense,, that its proper 
and main object is one which necessarily implies the exer- 
cise of coercive power. In fact, the very circumstance 
which gives to the Political Community that kind of sove- 
reignty which it does possess, is exactly what places be- 
yond its own proper province the very noblest and highest 
objects of all. Pure Morality as existing in the motives 
and not in mere outward acts, and sincere belief in a true 
Religion, are precisely what cannot be produced, directly 
and immediately,, by the coercive power of the Civil Ma- 
gistrate.. 



Note (B.) P. 60. 

" That no society can exist without some rules, and 
without some means of enforcing obedience to those rules, 
is obvious. When therefore it is asked, whether Christ or 
the Holy Spirit left any ecclesiastical laws, or vested any 
where power to enforce those laws 1 if the question is put 
with a view to ascertain whether Church-government be of 
divine origin, it is idle ; inasmuch as the very institution of 
the ecclesiastical society, the Church, implies the design 
that rules should be established, and means provided to 
enforce them. 

" But another object may be intended by the question. It 
may be put with the view of ascertaining what those rules 
are, whereby this society, the Church, is designed to be 



Appendix. 249 

governed. For, it may be said, and plausibly enough, that 
granting the intention of the Church's Founder to have 
laws established to be ever so apparent, how are we to 
know what kind of government he intended ? 

" On one point the inquirer must satisfy himself. If, 
from the nature of the Church, and from existing circum- 
stances, the members were already possessed of the means 
of acquiring this knowledge, in that case neither Christ nor 
the Holy Spirit would be likely to leave any code of eccle- 
siastical laws ; on precisely the same principle, as no code 
of ethics was left. 

" Now, is there any thing in the nature of the Church to 
guide us, as to what are ecclesiastical offences 1 Un- 
doubtedly there is. In every society there must be such a 
principle ; and by reference to it in each, are formed laws 
for the government of each. Every society recognises 
peculiar offences, arising out of, and depending solely on, 
the peculiar nature of the society ; so that, in proportion as 
this latter is understood, the former are defined. Much 
mischievous confusion in some instances arises from a want 
of attention to this connexion ; and the attention is fre- 
quently diverted from it by the accidental circumstance, 
that the same act often becomes an offence against many 
societies. Thus, theft is at once an offence against the 
supreme Ruler of the universe,— against the political body 
to which the thief is attached,— against some certain class 
of society, perhaps,, in which he moves, and so on. The 
act being one, it is only by reflection that we are enabled 
to separate the different views which render it in each case 
an offence, and in each of a different magnitude. Again, 
what becomes a crime because violating the principle of 
one society, may be none in another ; if, namely, it does 
not interfere with the object proposed in the formation and 
preservation of that other society. Thus, the violation of 
the academical rules of our Universities does not render the 
offending member amenable to the laws of the land. Thus, 
too> the very conduct which recommends a smuggler or a 



250 Appendix. 

robber to his confederacy, becomes an offence against the 
political body with which he is associated. 

" In order, therefore, to ascertain what are inherent 
offences or crimes in any society, it is necessary that we 
should know with what object or objects such society is 
formed. If information of this kind then be found in the 
sacred record, respecting the Christian society, ecclesias- 
tical law by revelation was no more to be expected, than 
a code of ethics to tell men what their own consciences 
were already constituted by God to declare. 

" It is certain, however, that if the question need not be 
answered in the affirmative, in order either to establish the 
divine origin of ecclesiastical government, or to determine 
what offences come under its cognizance, there is yet a 
third object which may be proposed in urging it. What 
punishments are authorized, in order to check those offences! 
Ought not these to have been specified \ and, not having 
been specified,, does the nature of the case here also super- 
sede the necessity of a revelation, and enable us to know 
what coercion is, and what is not, agreeable to the Divine 
will ? The inquiry, too, seems to be the more reasonable, 
because in looking to the methods by which various socie- 
ties are upheld, we find the punishment even in similar 
societies by no means the same. Military discipline, for 
instance, in different countries, and at different periods, has 
been enforced by penalties unlike in degree and in kind. 
In different countries and ages, the social tie between the 
master and the slave has been differently maintained. All 
this is true, but still, in looking at the question so, we take 
only a partial view, and lose one important feature in the 
establishment of coercion, — the right. 

" Now, this right is either inherent in the society, or 
conventional, or both, as is the case in most confederate 
bodies. When the right is limited to what the society ex- 
ercises as inherent and indispensable, — inherent in its 
nature, and indispensable to its existence, — the extreme 
punishment is,, exclusion; and the various degrees and 



Appendix. 251 

modifications of punishment, are only degrees and modifi- 
cations of exclusion. When the right is conventional also, 
(as far as it is so,) the punishment is determined by arbi- 
trary enactment, proceeding from some authority acknow- 
ledged by all parties, (whether that authority be lodged in 
the parties themselves, or in competent representatives, or 
in other delegated persons,) and therefore styled conven- 
tional. Few societies have ever existed without a large por- 
tion of these latter. Hence the anomaly above alluded to, 
and hence too the vulgar impression, that all punishments 
are arbitrary, and depend solely on the caprice and judg- 
ment of the government. What is popularly and emphati- 
cally termed society, affords a good instance of the first ; 
that is, of a social union regulated and maintained only by 
a right inherent. In this, excessive ill-manners and the 
gross display of ungentlemanly feelings are punished by ab- 
solute exclusion. According as the offence is less, the party 
offending is for a time excluded from some select portion of 
good society, or from certain meetings and the like, in which 
more particularly the spirit and genuine character of genti- 
lity are to be cherished. All its lawful and appropriate 
punishments are a system of exclusion, in various shapes 
and degrees." — Encyclopaedia Metropolitans (Historical 
Division,) vol. ii. pp. 744, 745. 



Note (C.) Pp. 62,78. 

" Hereupon doth the Apostle lay a divine directory be- 
fore him, concerning their manner of praying, choosing and 
ordaining of ministers, approving deacons, admitting wid- 
ows, and regulating the people — that nothing could be 
wanting to the healthy temper of that church, if they re- 
ceive and embrace these applications ; in the most of which 
prescriptions, he useth exceeding much of their synagogue- 



252 Appendix. 

language, that he may be the better understood ; and re- 
flected upon divers of their own laws and customs, that 
what he prescribeth, may imprint upon them with the more 
conviction. He calleth the minister * Episcopus,' from the 
common and known title • the chazan' or '■ overseer' in the 
synagogue : he prescribeth rules and qualifications for his 
choice, in most things suitable to their own cautions in 
choosing of an elder : he speaketh of * elders ruling only, 
and elders ruling and labouring in the word and doctrine ;' 
meaning, in this distinction, that same that he had spoken 
of in chap. iii. * bishops and deacons.' Both these, in the 
common language, then best known, were called, • elders,' 
and both owned as • rulers.' Yea, the very title, that they 
usually termed * deacons,' (Parnasin), was the common 
word that was used to signify, * a ruler.' The Jerusalem 
Talmud, speaking of the three * Parnasin,' or ' deacons,' 
that were in every synagogue, hath these two passages, 
which may be some illustration to two passages in this 
epistle : — * They appoint not less than three Parnasin in 
the congregation : for if matters of money ware judged by 
three, matters of life much more require three to manage 
them.' Observe that the deacon's office was accounted as 
an office that concerned life ; namely, in taking care for the 
existence of the poor. Accordingto this, may that in chap. iii. 
12, be understood : ' For they that have used the office of 
a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree ;' a 
good degree towards being entrusted with souls, when they 
have been faithful in the discharge of their trust concern- 
ing the life of the body." — Lightfoofs Harmony of the New 
Testament. Edited by the Rev. John Pitman. Vol. iii. p. 257, 

41 The Apostles at Jerusalem, hearing the glad tidings of 
the conversion of Samaria, send down Peter and John ; and 
why these two rather than any other of the twelve, is not 
so easy ro resolve, as it is ready to observe, that if, in this 
employment, there was any sign of primacy, John was sharer 
of it as well as Peter. Being come, they pray, and lay their 



Appendix. 253 

hands upon them, and they receive the Holy Ghost. Here 
episcopacy thinketh it hath an undeniable argument for 
proof of its hierarchy, and of the strange right of confirma- 
tion. For thus pleadeth Baronius for the former : ' From 
hence (saith he) it may be seen, that the hierarchial order 
was instituted in the church of God, even in this time ; for 
Philip doth so baptize those that believe, that yet he usurp- 
eth not the apostolical privilege, — namely, the imposition 
of hands granted to the Apostles.' And thus the Rhemists 
both for it, and for the latter, in their notes on Acts viii. 17 : 
— * If this Philip had been an Apostle (saith St. Bede), he 
might have imposed his hands, that they might have received 
the Holy Ghost ; but this none can do, saving bishops. For 
though priests may baptize and anoint the baptized also with 
chrism consecrated by a bishop, — yet can he not sign his 
forehead with the same holy oil ; because that belongeth 
only to bishops, when they give the Holy Ghost to be bap- 
tized.' And after this testimony of Bede, they subjoin their 
inference : • This imposition therefore of hands, together 
with the prayers here specified (which no doubt was the 
very same that the church useth to that purpose) was the 
ministration of the sacrament of confirmation.' 

" Now let the reader, with indifferency and seriousness, 
but ruminate upon these two queries, and then judge of 
these two inferences : — 

" First, whether apostleship were not an order for ever, 
inimitable in the church : for besides the reason given to 
prove that it was, upon the choosing of Matthias, others may 
be added to make it more clear : — as, 1. The end of their 
election was peculiar, the like to which was not to be in the 
church again ; for they were chosen to be with Christ, 
Mark iii. 14 ; to be eye-witnesses of his resurrection, Acts 
i. 22, ii. 32, and x. 41 ; as they had been of his actions and 
passion, Luke i. 2. And, therefore, Paul pleading for his 
apostleship, that, * he had seen the Lord,' 1 Cor. ix. 1 ; 
and in the relation or story of his calling, this particular is 
singularly added, that « he saw that Just One, and heard 
the voice of his mouth,' Acts xxii. 14. 



254 AppeMiX. 

" Secondly, the name of * Apostles' keepeth itself un- 
mixed or confounded with any other order. It is true, in- 
deed, that the significancy of the word would agree to 
other ministers that are to preach ; but there is a peculiar 
propriety in the sense, that hath confined the title to the 
twelve and Paul : as any indifferent eye will judge and 
censure upon the weighing of it in the New Testament. 

" Thirdly, When Paul reckoneth the several kinds of 
ministry, that Christ Jesus left in the Church at his ascen- 
sion, Eph. iv. 11, and 1 Cor. xii. 28, — there is none that 
can think them all to be perpetuated, or that they should 
continue successively in the like order from time to time. 
For within a hundred years after our Saviour's birth, where 
were either prophets or evangelists, miracles or healings ? 
And if these extraordinary kinds of ministration were or- 
dained but for a time, and for special occasion* and were 
not to be imitated in the church unto succeeding times ; 
much more, or at the least as much, were the Apostles, 
and order much more, at least, as much extraordinary, as 
they. 

** Fourthly, The constant and undeniable parallel, which 
is made betwixt the twelve Patriarchs* the fathers of the 
twelve tribes, and the twelve Apostles> not only by the 
number itself, but also by the New Testament, in the 
four-and-twenty Elders, Rev. iv. 4, — and in the gates and 
foundations of the New Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 12, 14, — doth 
argue and prove the latter order as inimitable as the first. 
These things well considered, if there were no more, it 
will show, how improbable and unconsonant the first infer- 
ence is, that is alleged, that because there was a suborni- 
nation betwixt the Apostles and Philip, therefore, the like 
is to be reputed betwixt bishops and other ministers, and 
that bishops in the church are in the place of the Apos- 
tles." — LightfooVs Commentary on the Acts, vol. viii. 
p. 125. 

" 1. Here beginneth * the kingdom of heaven ;' when 
the Gentiles are received to favour and to the Gospel, 



Appendix. 255 

who had been so long cast off, and lain in ignorance and 
idolatry ; and when no difference is made betwixt them 
and the Jews any longer, — but, of every nation, they that 
fear God and work righteousness are accepted of him 
as well as Israel. This is the very first beginning or 
dawning to the kingdom of heaven; and so it grew on 
more and more, till Jerusalem was destroyed ; and then 
was the perfect day, when the Gentiles only were become 
the church of Christ: and no church or commonwealth of 
Israel to be had at all, but they destroyed and ruined. 

"2. Here 'Peter hath the keys of the kingdom,' and un- 
locked the door for the Gentiles to come in to the faith and 
gospel, which, till now, had been shut, and they kept out. 
And Peter only had the keys, and none of the apostles or 
disciples but he, for though they from henceforward brought 
in Gentiles daily into the kingdom of heaven, by converting 
them to the Gospel, — yet it was he that first and only opened 
the door ; and the door, being once opened, was never shut, 
nor never shall be to the end of the world. And this was all 
the priority that Peter had before the other apostles, if it 
were any priority; and how little this concerneth Rome, or 
the Papacy, as to be any foundation of it, a child may observe. 

"3. Peter here looseth the greatest strictness, and what 
was the straitest bound-up of any thing that was in all the 
policy of Moses and customs of the Jews, — and that was, 
the difference of clean and unclean, in the legal sense. 
And this he looseth on earth, and it is loosed in heaven ; 
for from heaven had he an immediate warrant to dissolve it. 
And this he doth, first declaratively, showing that nothing 
henceforward is to be called common or unclean, and show- 
ing his authority for this doctrine ; and then practically 
conforming himself to this doctrine that he taught, by going 
in unto the uncircumcised, and eating with them. ' Bind- 
ing and loosing,' in our Saviour's sense, and in the Jews' 
sense, from whose use he takeththe phrase, is 'of things and 
not of persons ;' for Christ saith to Peter, o td.v dr^orig, and 
oiavMarig ; o and not ov ; 'whatsoever' thou bindest, and 

22 



256 Appendix. 

not 'whomsoever ;'and to the other apostles, 6Va £&v d^o^TS, 
Matt, xviii. 18, oaa and not oaovg, 'whatsoever things,' and 
not,' whatsoeverpersons;' so that,though it be true and indeed, 
that Jews and Gentiles are loosed henceforward one to the 
communion of another, -—yet the proper object of this loosing 1 , 
that is loosed by Peter, was that la w or doctrine that tied them 
up. And so concerning the eating of those things that had 
been prohibited, — it is true, indeed, that the Jews were let 
loose henceforward to the use of them in diet, and to eat 
what they thought good ; but this loosing was not so pro- 
perly of the men, as the loosing of that prohibition, that 
had bound them before. And this could be no way but 
doctrinally, by teaching that christian liberty that was given 
by the gospel. 

" Now, though Peter only, and none but he, had ' the 
keys of the kingdom' of heaven, yet had all the apostles 
the 'power of binding and loosing,' as well as he ; and so 
have all the ministers of the gospel as well as they ; and 
all in the same sense, namely, doctrinally to teach what is 
bound and loose, or lawful and unlawful ; but not in the 
same kind : for the apostles, having the constant and un- 
erring assistance of the Holy Ghost, did nullify, by their 
doctrine, some part of Moses's law, as to the use of it, as 
circumcision, sacrifices, purifyings, and other legal rites, — 
which could not have been done by men, that had not had 
such a Spirit ; for there must be the same Spirit of pro- 
phecy to abrogate a law which had set it in force." — P. 219« 

" Besides these there was ' the public minister of the 
synagogue,' who prayed publicly, and took care about the 
reading of the law, and sometimes preached, if there were 
not some other to discharge this office. This person was 
called, "The Angel of the Church,' and 'the Chazan or 
Bishop of the Congregation.' The public minister of the 
synagogue himself read not the law publicly ; but, every 
sabbath, he called out seven of the synagogue (on other 
days, fewer) whom he judged fit to read. He stood by him 
that read, with great care observing, that he read nothing 



Appendix. 257 

either falsely, or improperly, — and calling him back, and 
correcting him, if he had failed in any thing. And hence 
he was called, ' 'Enioxonog,' or 'Overseer.' Certainly, 
the signification of the word ' Bishop,' and ■ Angel of the 
Church,' had been determined with less noise, if recourse 
had been made to the proper fountains, — and men had not 
vainly disputed about the signification of words, taken I 
know not whence. The service and worship of the temple 
being abolished, as being ceremonial, God transplanted the 
worship and public adoration of God used in the synagogues, 
which was moral, into the Christian church ; to wit, the 
public ministry, public prayers, reading God's word, and 
preaching, &c. Hence the names of the ministers of the 
gospel were the very same, ' The Angel of the Church,' 
and 'The Bishop,' — which belonged to the ministers in the 
synagogues." — Hebrew and Talmudicdl Exercilations upon 
the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, vol. xi. p. 88. 

" Ver. 19 : Kal d&acj oov tag xXelg jr\g fiacnXelag j(bv 
otigavibv. 'And I will give thee the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven.' That is, ' Thou shalt first open the door 
of faith to the Gentiles.' He had said, that he would build 
his church to endure for ever, against which the ' gates of 
hell should not prevail,' which had prevailed against the 
Jewish Church : and ♦ To thee, O Peter (saith he) I will 
give the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; that thou mayest 
open a door for the bringing in of the gospel to that church.' 
Which was performed by Peter in that remarkable story 
concerning Cornelius, Acts x. And I make no doubt, that 
those words of Peter respect these words of Christ, Acts 
xv. 7; ^Aq? r][isQ(br agxai'wv 6 Qebg Iv r^iiv e^elet-aTO di& 
tov OTdficnog (iov (jc%ovcrott, xk Wvr] top Xdyov rov Evayye- 
Uov, xal niOTSvcrcu. 'A good while ago God made choice 
among us, that the Gentiles should hear the word of the 
Gospel by mouth, and believe.' 

" Keel o£&v dr^ar^g ^nl jr[g yrj?, &c. 'And ivhatsoever 
thou shalt bind on earth,' &c. Kal o &olp Hcrrig enl trig. 
yr\g % &c. 'And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earthy &c. 



258 Appendix. 

" I. We believe the keys were committed to Peter alone, 
but the power of binding and loosing to the other apostles 
also, chap, xxviii. 18. 

" IT. It is necessary to suppose, that Christ here spake 
according to the common people, — or he could not be un- 
derstood without a particular commentary, which is no- 
where to be found. 

"III. But now 'to bind and loose,' a very usual phrase 
in the Jewish schools, was spoken of things, not of persons ; 
which is here also to be observed in the articles, o and ocra > 
'what,' and 'whatsoever,' chap. xv'm."-^LightfoQt, p. 226. 



Note(D.) Pp. 76, 78. 

"It was indeed not at all to be expected that the Gospels, 
the Acts, and those Epistles which have come down to us, 
should have been, considering the circumstances in which 
they were written, any thing different from what they are : 
but the question still recurs,why should not the Apostles or 
their followers have also committed to paper, what we are 
sure must have been perpetually in their mouths, regular 
instruction to Catechumens, Articles of Faith, Prayers, and 
directions as to Public Worship, and administration of the 
Sacraments ? 

" Supposing that the other avocations of the Apostles 
would not allow any of them leisure for such composi- 
tions, — though we know that some of them did find time 
for writing, two of them, not a little, — even this supposition 
does not at all explain the difficulty ; for the Acts, and two 
of the Gospels, were written by men who were only atten- 
dants on the Apostles. Nor would such writings as I am 
speaking of have required an inspired penman ; only, one 
who had access to persons thus gifted. We know with what 
care the Apostolic Epistles were preserved^ first by the 



Appendix. 259 

Churches to which they were respectively sent, and after- 
wards, by the others also, as soon as they received copies. 
How comes it then that no one of the Elders (Presbyters) 
of any of these Churches should have written down, and 
afterwards submitted to the revision of an ApostJe, that 
outline of catechetical instruction — that elementary intro- 
duction to the Christian faith — which they must have re- 
ceived at first from that Apostle's mouth, and have after- 
wards employed in the instruction of their own converts'? 
Why did none of them record any of the Prayers, of which 
they must have heard so many from an Apostle's mouth, 
both in the ordinary devotional assemblies, in the adminis- 
tration of the Sacraments, and in the 'laying on of hands,' 
by which they themselves had been ordained ! 

" Paul, after having given the most general exhortations- 
to the Corinthians for the preservation of decent regularity 
in their religious meetings, adds, ' the rest will I set in 
order when I come.' And so doubtless he did ; and so he 
must have done, by verbal directions, in all the other 
churches also ; is it not strange then that these verbal di- 
rections should nowhere have been committed to writing? 
This would have seemed a most obvious and effectual mode 
of precluding all future disorders and disputes : as also 
the drawing up of a compendious statement of Christian 
doctrines,, would have seemed a safeguard against the still 
more important evil of heretical error. Yet if any such 
statements . and formularies had been drawn up, with the 
sanction, and under the revision of an Apostle, we may be 
sure they would have been preserved and transmitted to 
posterity, with the most scrupulous and reverential care. 
The conclusion therefore seems inevitable, that either no 
one of the numerous Elders and Catechists ever thought of 
doing this, or else, that they were forbidden by the Apos- 
tles to execute any such design ; and each of these alter- 
natives seems to me alike inexplicable by natural causes. 

" For it should be remembered that, when other points 
are equal, it is much more difficult to explain a negative 
22* 



260 Appendix. 

than a positive circumstance in our Scriptures* There is 
something, suppose, in the New Testament, which the 
first promulgators of Christianity, — considered as mere 
unassisted men, — were not likely to write ; and there is 
something else, which they were, we will suppose, equally 
unlikely to omit writing ; now these two difficulties are by 
no means equal. For, with respect to the former, if we 
can make out that any one of these men might have been, 
by nature or by circumstances, qualified and induced to 
write it, the phenomenon is solved. To point out even a 
single individual able and likely to write it, would account . 
for its being written. But it is not so with respect to the 
other case, that of omission. Here, we have to prove a ne- 
gative ; — to show, not merely that this or that man was like- 
ly not to write what we find omitted, but, that no one was 
likely to write it." ****** 

" Although however we cannot pretend, in every case, 
to perceive the reasons for what God has appointed, it is 
not in the present case difficult to discern the superhuman 
wisdom of the course adopted. If the Hymns and forms 
of Prayer, — the Catechisms, — the Confessions of faith, — 
and the Ecclesiastical regulations, which the Apostles em- 
ployed, had been recorded, these would all have been re- 
garded as parts of Scripture : and even had they been ac- 
companied by the most express declarations of the lawful- 
ness of altering or laying aside any of them, we cannot 
doubt that they would have been in practice most scrupu- 
lously retained, even when changes of manners, tastes,, 
and local and temporary circumstances of every kind, ren- 
dered them no longer the most suitable. The Jewish rit- 
ual, designed for one Nation and Country,, and intended to 
be of temporary duration, was fixed and accurately pre- 
scribed : the same Divine Wisdom from which both dis- 
pensations proceeded, having designed Christianity for all 
Nations and Ages, left Christians at large in respect of 
those points in which variation might be desirable. But I 
think no human wisdom would have foreseen and provided 



Appendix. 261 

for this. That a number of Jews,, accustomed from their 
infancy to so strict a ritual, should, in introducing Chris- 
tianity as the second part of the same dispensation, have 
abst; ned not only from accurately prescribing for the use 
of ali Christian Churches for ever, the mode of divine 
worship, but even from recording what was actually in 
use under their own directions, does seem to me utter- 
ly incredible, unless we suppose them to have been re- 
strained from doing this by a special admonition of the Di- 
vine Spirit. 

41 And we may be sure, as I have said, that if they had 
recorded the particulars of their own worship, the very 
words they wrote would have been invested, in our minds, 
with so much sanctity, that it would have been thought 
presumptuous to vary or to omit them, however inappro- 
priate they might become. The Lord's Prayer, the only 
one of general application that is recorded in the Scrip- 
tures, though so framed as to be suitable in all Ages and 
Countries, has yet been subjected to much superstitious 
abuse." * * * * * 

" Each Church, therefore, was left, through the wise 
foresight of Him who alone 'knew what is in Man,' to 
provide for its own wants as they should arise ! — to steer 
its own course by the Chart and Compass which his holy 
Word supplies, regulating for itself the Sails and Rudder, 
according to the winds and currents it may meet with. 

"- * The Apostles had begun and established precedents,, 
which, of course, would be naturally adopted by their un- 
inspired successors. But still, as these were only the for- 
mal means of grace, and not the blessing itself, it was 
equally to be expected that the Church should assume a 
discretionary power whenever the means established be- 
came impracticable or clearly unsuitable, and either sub- 
stitute others, or even altogether abolish such as exist- 
ed. .. . It might seem at first that the apostolical prece- 
dents were literally binding on all ages ; but this cannot 
have been intended : and for this reason, that the greater 



262 Appendix. 

portion of the apostolical practices have been transmitted 
to us, not on apostolical authority, but on the authority of 
the uninspired church : which has handed them down with 
an uncertain mixture of its own appointments. How are 
we to know the enactments of the inspired rulers from 
those of the uninspired 1 and if there be no certain clue, 
we must either bring down the authority of apostolical 
usage to that of the uninspired church,, or raise that of the 
uninspired church to that of the apostolical. Now the 
former is, doubtless, what was, to a certain extent, intend- 
ed by the Apostles themselves, as will appear from a line 
of distinction by which they have carefully partitioned off 
such of their appointments as are designed to be perpetual 
from such as are left to share the possibility of change, 
with the institutions of uninspired wisdom. 

"'If then we look to the account of the Christian 
usages contained in Scripture, nothing can be more un- 
questionable, than that while some are specified, others are 
passed over in silence. It is not even left so as to make 
us imagine that those mentioned may be all : but while 
some are noted specifically, the establishment of others is 
implied, without the particular mode of observance being 
given. Thus, we are equally sure from Scripture, that Chris- 
tian ministers were ordained by a certain form, and that 
Christians assembled in prayer; but while the precise pro- 
cess of laying on of hands is mentioned in the former institu- 
tion, no account is given of the precise method of church 
service, or even of any regular forms of prayer, beyond 
the Lord's Prayer. Even the record of the Ordination 
Service itself admits of the same distinction. It is quite 
as certain that, in it, some prayer was used, as that some 
outward form accompanied the prayer ; but the form is 
specified, the prayer left unrecorded. 

" • What now is the obvious interpretation of the holy 
Dispenser's meaning in this mode of record ? Clearly it 
is, that the Apostles regulated, under His guidance, the 
forms and practices of the church, so as was best calcula- 



Appendix. 263 

ted to convey grace to the church at that time. Neverthe- 
less, part of its institutions were of a nature, which, al- 
though formal, would never require a change ; and these 
therefore were left recorded in the Scriptures, to mark 
this distinction of character. The others were not, indeed, 
to be capriciously abandoned, nor except when there should 
be manifest cause for so doing ; but as such a case was 
supposable, these were left to mingle with the uninspired 
precedents ; the claims of which, as precedents, would 
be increased by this uncertain admixture, and the authori- 
ty of the whole rendered so far binding, and so far subject 
to the discretion of the Church. They might not be alter- 
ed unless sufficient grounds should appear ; but the set- 
tling of this point was left to the discretion of the church.' a 

" The Apostles themselves, however, and their numer- 
ous fellow-laborers, would not, I think, have been, if left 
to themselves, so far-sighted as to perceive (all, and each 
of them, without a single exception) the expediency of 
this procedure. Most likely, many of them, but according 
to all human probability, some of them, would have left 
us, as parts of Scripture, compositions such as I have been 
speaking of ; and these, there can be no doubt, would have 
been scrupulously retained for ever. They would have 
left us Catechisms, which would have been like precise 
directions for the cultivation of some plant, admirably adap- 
ted to a particular soil and climate, but inapplicable in 
those of a contrary description : their Symbols would have 
stood like ancient sea-walls, built to repel the encroach- 
ment of the waves, and still scrupulously kept in repair, 
when perhaps the sea had retired from them many miles, 
and was encroaching on some different part of the coast. 

" There are multitudes, even as it is, who do not, even 
now, perceive the expediency of the omission ; there are 
not a few who even complain of it as a defect, or even 
make it a ground of objection. That in that day, the rea- 

* Hinds's History, vol. ii. pp, 113—115. 



264 Appendix. 

sons for the procedure actually adopted, should have oc- 
curred, and occurred to all the first Christians, supposing 
them mere unassisted men, and men too brought up in 
Judaism, is utterly incredible." — Essay on Omissions, pp. 
15—19 ; 24—27 ; 30—34. 



Note (E.) P. 94. 

" It is not, I think, unlikely that some hasty and super- 
ficial reasoners may have found an objection to Christiani- 
ty in the omission of which I have been speaking. It is 
certain that there are not a few who are accustomed to 
pronounce this or that supposition improbable, as soon as 
they perceive that it involves great difficulties ; without 
staying to examine whether there are more or fewer on 
the other side of the alternative : as if a traveller when he 
had the choice of two roads, should, immediately on per- 
ceiving that there were impediments in the one, decide on 
taking the other, before he had ascertained whether it 
were even possible. I can conceive some such reasoners 
exclaiming, in the present case, ' Surely, if the Apostles 
had really been inspired by an all-wise God, they would 
never have omitted so essential a provision as that of a 
clear systematic statement of the doctrines to be believed, 
and the worship to be offered, so as to cut off, as far as can 
be done, all occasions of heresy and schism. If the Deity 
had really bestowed a revelation on his creatures, He 
would have provided rules of faith and of practice so pre- 
cise and so obviouSj as not to be overlooked or mistaken ; 
instead of leaving men, whether pretending to infallibility 
as the Romanists, or interpreting Scripture by the light of 
reason, as the Protestants, to elicit by a laborious search, 
and comparison of passages, what doctrines and duties are, 
in their judgment,, agreeable to the Divine Will.' 



Appendix. 263 

"You think it was to be expected (one might reply) 
that God would have proceeded in this manner ; and is it 
not at least as much to be expected that Man would? It is 
very unlikely, you say, that the Apostles would have 
omitted these systematic instructions, if they had really 
been inspired; but if they were not, they must have been 
impostors or enthusiasts ; does then that hypothesis remove 
the difficulty] Is it not at least as unlikely, on that sup- 
position, that no one of them, or of their numerous follow- 
ers, should have taken a step so natural and obvious 1 All 
reasonable conjecture, and all experience show, that any 
men, but especially Jews, when engaged in the propaga- 
tion and establishment of a religion, and acting, whether 
sincerely or insincerely, on their own judgment as to what 
was most expedient, would have done what no Christian 
writer during the age of (supposed) inspiration has done. 
One would even have expected indeed, that, as we have 
four distinct Gospels, so, several different writers would 
have left us copies of the Catechisms, &c. which they 
were in the habit of using orally. This or that individual 
might have been prevented from doing so by accidental 
circumstances ; but that every one of some hundreds 
should have been so prevented, amounts to a complete 
moral impossibility. 

" We have here, then, it may be said, a choice of diffi- 
culties : if the Christian religion came from God, it is (we 
will suppose) very strange, and contrary to all we should 
have expected from the Deity, that He should have per- 
mitted in the Scriptures the omission I am speaking of : if, 
again, it is the contrivance of men, it is strange, and con- 
trary to all we could have expected from men, that they 
should have made the omission. And now, which do we 
know the more of, God, or Man ] Of whose character 
and designs are we the more competent judges, and the 
better able to decide what may reasonably be expected of 
each, the Creator, or our fellow-creatures ? And as there 
can be no doubt about the answer to this question, so, the 



266 Appendix. 

conclusion which follows from that answer is obvious. If 
the alternative were presented to me, that either something 
has been done by persons with whose characters I am in- 
timately acquainted, utterly at variance with their nature, 
and unaccountable, or else that some man to whom I am 
personally a stranger, (though after all, the nature of every 
human Being must be better known to us, than, by the 
light of reason, that of the Deity can be,) had done some- 
thing which to me is entirely inexplicable, I should be 
thought void of sense if I did not embrace, as the less im- 
probable, this latter side of the alternative. 

" And such is the state of the present case, to one who 
finds this peculiarity in the Christian Scriptures quite un- 
accountable on either supposition. The argument is com- 
plete, whether we are able, or not, to perceive any wise 
reasons for the procedure adopted. Since no one of the 
first promulgators of Christianity did that which they 
must, some of them at least, have been naturally led to do, 
it follows that they must have been supernaturally with- 
held from it; how little soever we may be able even to 
conjecture the object of the prohibition. For in respect 
of this, and several other (humanly speaking, unaccounta- 
ble) circumstances in our religion, especially that treated 
of in the Fourth of the Essays above referred to, it is im- 
portant to observe, that the argument does not turn on the 
supposed wisdom of this or that appointment, which we 
conceive to be worthy of the Deity, and thence infer that 
the religion must have proceeded from Him ; but, on the 
utter improbability of its having proceeded from Man ; 
which leaves its divine origin the only alternative. The 
Christian Scriptures considered in this point of view, pre- 
sent to us a standingMiracle ; at least, a Monument of a 
Miracle ; since they are in several points such as we may 
be sure, according to all natural causes, they would not have 
been. Even though the character which these writings 
do in fact exhibit, be such as we cannot clearly account 
for on any hypothesis, still, if they are such as we can 



Appendix. 267 

clearly perceive no false pretenders would have composed, 
the evidence is complete, though the difficulty may remain 
unexplained." — Essay on Omissions, pp. 19 — 24. 



Note (F.) P. 94. 

* The three great principles then, on which every 
Church, or Christian society, was formed by the apostles, 
were Spirituality, Universality, and Unity. Out of 
these arose one important limit to the discretionary powers 
of the uninspired Church, when deprived of extraordinary 
authority. It is of the last importance that this fact should 
be borne in mind, in every appeal to the practice and au- 
thority of the primitive Church. There is (even among 
protestant divines) a vague method of citing the authori- 
ty of the early Churches in matters of discipline and prac- 
tice, without any distinct view of the exact weight of that 
authority. In quoting doctrinal statements we are gene- 
rally more accurate in our estimate 1 but it is undeniable, 
that the practices and discipline of the primitive Churches, 
are subject to the same kind of check from Scripture, as 
are their opinions and faith ; and are in no instance to be 
received as if they were matters left altogether to their 
discretion. The principles, although not the specific rules, 
are given in the New Testament : and this is, perhaps, 
nearly all that is done in the case of the doctrines them- 
selves. Only the elements, out of which these are to be 
composed, are furnished by Scripture. So far from being 
stated in a formal way, some of the abstract terms for 
these doctrines are not found in the Scriptures ; such a 
statement and enunciation of them being left to the discre- 
tion of the Church. So, too, the principles of the Church- 
establishment were given, and were put in practice for il- 
lustration ; and the application of these principles was all 
23 



268 Appendix. 

that was left to the discretion of its uninspired rulers. In 
short, every Church, in all ages, holds Scripture in its 
hand, as its warrant for its usages as well as for its doc- 
trines ; and had the immediate successors and companions 
of the apostles, from the very first, corrupted the govern- 
ment and constitution of the Church, we should be enabled 
to condemn them, from the New Testament ; and to this 
test it is the duty of all ages to bring them. Their man- 
agement of those matters which are said to be left indeter- 
minate, has only the authority of an experiment ; it is a 
practical illustration of Scriptural principles. Whenever 
they have been successful in this experiment, it would, 
indeed, generally be unwise and presumptuous in us to 
hazard a different mode of attaining the same result ; but 
even here, any deviation is authorized by difference of cir- 
cumstances; the same principle which guided them being 
kept in view by us. But, in whatever stage of ecclesias- 
tical history the principle itself has been forgotten, — it 
matters not how far back the practice may be traced, — it 
has no authority as a precedent. The Bible is our only 
attested rule ; and we must appeal to it with the boldness 
recommended by the apostle to his converts ; and though 
an angel from heaven preach unto us any other rule than 
that we have received, let him be accursed. 

" This boundary line to the discretionary powers of the 
Church would be quite clear, supposing the ecclesiastical 
principles to have been left only as above considered, in the 
form of abstract instruction, whether formally enunciated, 
or certainly deducible from the Scriptures. But far more 
than this was done. On these very principles the apos- 
tles actually formed and regulated societies of Christians ; 
so as to leave them not merely abstractedly propounded, 
but practically proved. This proceeding, while it light- 
ened the difficulty of the uninspired Church, (especially of 
those who first received the guidance of it from the apos- 
tles, and who most needed it,) proportionably contracted 
the discretionary powers with which they were invested. 



Appendix. 269 

If only abstract principles had been left, uninspired au- 
thorities would have been justified in regarding solely these, 
and regulating the means of conformity to them by their 
own unbiassed judgment. But the apostolical precedents 
created a new restriction. Rulers of infallible judgment 
had not only taught the principle, but the precise method 
by which that principle was best preserved had been prac- 
tised by them, and set forth, apparently for the guidance of 
their less enlightened successors. 

" Was the Church of all ages bound to follow their track 
without any deviation 1 If so, where was any room for 
discretionary power 1 If not, on what authority was the 
deviation to be made, and how far was it authorized ? 
Here the most accurate view of the character and object of 
the Christian's sacred record is necessary, in order to re- 
move all obscurity from the question. That record, as far 
as the agency of human ministers is its object, is partly 
historical, partly legislative. The two terms are not, per- 
haps, quite expressive of the distinction intended ; but, by 
Scripture being partly legislative, is meant, that it is partly 
concerned in conveying the rules and principles of reli- 
gion — the revealed will, in short, of God. It is also partly 
historical ; and of the historical portion no inconsiderable 
share is solely or principally a practical illustration of these 
rules. History and legislation are indeed both blended ; 
and it is because they are thus connected : but the respec- 
tive uses of them, as distinct portions of Scripture, are here, 
as in other questions of a similar nature, very important. 
When the historical incidents, the facts recorded, are re- 
corded as specimens of the fulfilment of God's will, their 
only authority, as precedents and examples, arises from 
their conformity to the principle which they illustrate. 
Now it is conceivable and likely, that a change of circum- 
stances may render a practice inconsistent with such a 
principle, which originally was most accordant with it, and 
vice versa. The principle is the fixed point, and the course 
which has first attained it may become as unsuitable to 



270 Appendix. 

another who pursues it, as the same line of direction would 
be for two voyagers who should be steering for the same 
landmark at different seasons, and with different winds. 
Still, as in this latter case, the first successful attempt 
would be, to a certain extent, a guide to those which fol- 
low ; and this, exactly in proportion to the skill of the 
forerunner. The apostles were known to be infallible 
guides ; and those who immediately succeeded them, and 
all subsequent ages, are quite sure that they must have 
pursued that which was, under the existing circumstances, 
the most direct line to their object, — that, situated as Chris- 
tianity was in their hands, all their regulations were the 
best possible for preserving the principles of the Church- 
establishment and government. The uninspired Church 
was therefore bound to follow them, until any apostolical 
practice should be found inadequate to accomplish its ori- 
ginal purpose. Here commence the discretion and respon- 
sibility ; the first obligation being to maintain the principle 
according to the best of their judgment, as the prudent 
steersman alters his track and deviates from the course 
marked out in his chart, when wind or tide compel him to 
the deviation. 

"And thus we shall be at no loss for the precise differ- 
ence of authority between the precedents of the apostolical 
and of the primitive uninspired Church. In matters which 
admit of appeal to the usage of the apostolical Church, we 
are sure, not only that the measure was wise, but the very 
wisest ; and, accordingly, the only question is, whether its 
suitableness has been affected by any change of circum- 
stance. On the other hand, in a similar reference to 
the uninspired Church of any age, the measure is first of 
all pronounced wise or unwise — lawful or unlawful, as it 
conduces or not to the maintenance of the revealed princi- 
ples of ecclesiastical society. And, supposing the measure 
under consideration be proved to have been so conducive, 
still it is not at once certain, as in the former case, that it 
was the wisest and most judicious measure which the ex- 



Appendix. 271 

isting circumstances required or admitted. It emanated 
from fallible wisdom. Accordingly, in canvassing the au- 
thority of such a precedent, we are authorized and bound to 
institute two inquiries ; — Was the measure the most ac- 
cordant with ecclesiastical principles then? Is it so nowl 
Whereas, in the former appeal to apostolic usage, the only 
question is, whether it is convenient, now?" — Encyclopaedia 
Metropolilana, (Historical Division,) vol. ii. pp. 775, 776. 



Note (G.) P. 109. 

" Supposing such a summary of Gospel-truths had been 
drawn up, and could have been contrived with such exqui- 
site skill as to be sufficient and well-adapted for all, of every 
age and country, what would have been the probable result? 
It would have commanded the unhesitating assent of all 
Christians, who would, with deep veneration, have stored 
up the very words of it in their memory, without any need 
of laboriously searching the rest of the Scriptures, to as- 
certain its agreement with them ;. which is what we do (at 
least are evidently called on to do) with a human exposi- 
tion of the faith ; and the absence of this labour, together 
with the tranquil security as to the correctness of their be- 
lief which would have been thus generated, would have 
ended in a careless and contented apathy. There would 
have been no room for doubt, — no call for vigilant attention 
in the investigation of truth, — none of that effort of mind 
which is now requisite, in comparing one passage with 
another,, and collecting instruction from the scattered, 
oblique, and incidental references to various doctrines in the 
existing Scriptures ; and, in consequence, none of that ex- 
citement of the best feelings,. and that improvement of the 
heart, which are the natural, and doubtless the designed 
23* 



272 Appendix. 

result of an humble, diligent, and sincere study of the 
Christian Scriptures. 

" In fact, all study, properly so called, of the rest of 
Scripture, — all lively interest in its perusal, — would have 
been nearly superseded by such an inspired compendium 
of doctrine ; to which alone, as far the most convenient for 
that purpose, habitual reference would have been made, in 
any questions that might arise. Both would have been re- 
garded, indeed, as of divine authority ; but the Compen- 
dium, as the fused and purified metal ; the other, as the 
mine containing the crude ore. And the Compendium it- 
self, being not, like the existing Scriptures, that from 
which the faith is to be learned, but the very thing to be 
learned, would have come to be regarded by most with an 
indolent, unthinking veneration, which would have exer- 
cised little or no influence on the character. Their ortho- 
doxy would have been, as it were, petrified, like the bodies 
of those animals we read of incrusted in the ice of the polar 
regions ; firm-fixed, indeed, and preserved unchangeable, 
but cold, motionless, lifeless. It is only when our energies 
are roused, and our faculties exercised, and our attention 
kept awake, by an ardent pursuit of truth, and anxious 
watchfulness against error, — when, in short, we feel our- 
selves to be doing something towards acquiring, or retain- 
ing, or improving our knowledge, — it is then only, that 
that knowledge makes the requisite practical impression on 
the heart and on the conduct." — Essay on Omissions, pp. 
34—37. 



Note (H.) P. 122. 

Many persons are so accustomed to hear " the tradition 
of the primitive Church" spoken of as "designed to be the 
interpreter of Scripture" that they insensibly lose sight of 
the well-known facts of early Christian History. Conform- 



Appendix. 273 

ably with those facts it would be much more correct to 
speak of Scripture as having been designed to be the in- 
terpreter of Tradition. For, the first Churches did not, it 
should be remembered, receive their religion from the 
Christian Scriptures^ (as the Israelites did theirs from the 
books of Moses) but from oral teaching. 

To guard against the errors, and doubts, and defects, and 
corruptions, to which oral Tradition must ever be liable, the 
sacred books, — all of them addressed to persons who were 
already Christians — were provided as a lasting, pure, and 
authoritative record ; " that they might know the certainty 
of those things wherein they had been instructed." 

We find accordingly, as might have been expected, the 
references to Scripture in the works of the early Fathers, 
less and less frequent and exact, the higher we go back 
towards the days of the Apostles ; i. e. towards the time 
when the Churches had received Christian history and 
doctrines by oral instruction only. 

The scattered notices however in the works of the Early 
Fathers, of facts and doctrines substantially the same as 
we find in the Sacred Books, and also of those books them- 
selves, is a most valuable evidence, that (as Paley remarks) 
the Gospel which Christians have now is the same as Chris- 
tians had then. This evidence has been well compared to 
that afforded by the fossil remains of antediluvian animals 
which Geologists have examined, and which prove that 
Elephants, for instance, and such other animals inhabited 
the earth at a certain remote period. 

And it may be added, that Naturalists are accustomed, 
in examining fossil remains, — often mere fragments of 
skeletons, — to compare them with such existing animals as 
appear to be of kindred nature ; interpreting, if we may so 
speak, the less known by the better known, and thus form- 
ing reasonable conjectures as to the general appearance 
and character of the fossil animal as it formerly existed. 
But no one would think of reversing this process, and taking 
the fossil Elephant, for instance, as a standard by which to 



274 Appendix. 

correct and modify the description and delineation of the 
animal now existing among us. 

Even so, when we meet with any thing in the Ancient 
Fathers which was likely to have been derived by tradition 
from the Apostles, the obviously rational procedure is, to 
expound and interpret this by the writings of the Apostles 
that have come down to us. 



Note (I.) P. 134. 

" Some one may perhaps ask you, how you can know, 
except by taking the word of the learned for it, that there 
are these Greek and Hebrew originals which have been 
handed down from ancient times'? or how you can be sure 
that our translations of them are faithful, except by trusting 
to the translators % So that an unlearned Christian must, 
after all, (some people will tell you,) be at the mercy of 
the learned, in what relates to the very foundations of his 
faith. He must take their word (it will be said) for the 
very existence of the Bible in the original languages, and 
for the meaning of what is written in it ; and, therefore, he 
may as well at once take their word for every thing, and 
believe in his religion on their assurance. 

"And this is what many persons do. But others will be 
apt to say, 'How can we tell that the learned have not de- 
ceived us 1 The Mohammedans take the word of the 
learned men among them ; and the Pagans do the same ; 
and if the people have been imposed upon by their teachers 
in Mohammedan and Pagan countries, how can we tell that 
it is not the same in Christian countries ? What ground 
have we for trusting with such perfect confidence in our 
Christian teachers, that they are men who would not de- 
ceive us V 

" The truth is, however, that an unlearned Christian 



Appendix. 275 

may have very good grounds for being a believer, without 
placing this entire confidence in any man. He may have 
reason to believe that there are ancient Greek manuscripts 
of the New Testament, though he never saw one, nor could 
read it if he did. And he may be convinced that an Eng- 
lish Bible gives the meaning of the original, though he may 
not trust completely to any one's word. In fact, he may 
have the same sort of evidence in this ease, which every 
one trusts to in many other cases, where none but a mad- 
man would have any doubt at all. 

" For instance, there is no one tolerably educated who 
does not know that there is such a country as France, 
though he may never have been there himself. Who is 
there that doubts whether there are such cities as London, 
and Paris, and Rome, though he may have never visited 
them 7 Most people are fully convinced that the world is 
round, though there are but few who have sailed round it. 
There are many persons living in the inland parts of these 
islands who never saw the sea ; and yet none of them, even 
the most ignorant clowns, have any doubt that there is such 
a thing as the sea. We believe all these, and many other 
such things, because we have been told them. 

" Now suppose any one should say, ' How do you know 
that travellers have not imposed upon you in all these 
matters ; as it is well known travellers are apt to do 7 Is 
there any traveller you can so fully trust in, as to be quite 
sure he would not deceive you 7' What would you answer 7 
I suppose you would say, one traveller, might, perhaps, de- 
ceive us ; or even two or three might possibly combine to 
propagate a false story, in some case where hardly any 
one would have the opportunity to detect them : but in 
these matters there are hundreds and thousands who would 
be sure to contradict the accounts if they were not true ; 
and travellers are often glad of an opportunity of detecting 
each other's mistakes. Many of them disagree with each 
other in several particulars respecting the cities of Paris 
and Rome ; and if it had been false that there are any such 



276 Appendix. 

cities at all, it is impossible but that the falsehood should 
have been speedily contradicted. And it is the same with 
the existence of the sea, — the roundness of the world, — 
and the other things that were mentioned. 

It is in the same manner that we believe, on the word of 
astronomers, that the earth turns round every twenty-four 
hours, though we are insensible of the motion ; and that 
the sun, which seems as if you could cover it with your 
hat, is immensely larger than the earth we inhabit ; though 
there is not one person in ten thousand that has ever gone 
through the mathematical proof of this. And yet we have 
very good reason for believing it ; not from any strong con- 
fidence in the honesty of any particular astronomer, but 
because the same things are attested by many different 
astronomers, who are so far from combining together in a 
false account, that many of them rejoice in any opportunity 
of detecting each other's mistakes. 

"Now an unlearned man has just the same sort of reason 
for believing that there are ancient copies, in Hebrew and 
Greek, of the Christian sacred books, and of the works of 
other ancient authors, who mention some things connected 
with the origin of Christianity. There is no need for him 
to place full confidence in any particular man's honesty. 
For if any book were forged by some learned men in these 
days, and put forth as a translation from an ancient book, 
there are many other learned men, of this, and of various 
other countries, and of different religions, who would be 
eager to make an inquiry, and examine the question, and 
would be sure to detect any forgery, especially on an im- 
portant subject. 

" And it is the same with translators. Many of these 
are at variance with each other as to the precise sense of 
some particular passage ; and many of them are very much 
opposed to each other, as to the doctrines which they be- 
lieve to be taught in Scripture. But all the different ver- 
sions of the Bible agree as to the main outline of the 
history, and of the discourses recorded : and therefore an 



Appendix. 277 

unlearned Christian may be as sure of the general sense 
of the original as if he understood the language of it, and 
could examine it for himself; because he is sure that un- 
believers, who are opposed to all Christians, or different 
sects of Christians, who are opposed to each other, would 
not fail to point out any errors in the translations made by 
their opponents. Scholars have an opportunity to examine 
and inquire into the meaning of the original works ; and 
therefore the very bitterness with which they dispute 
against each other, proves that where they all agree they 
must be right. 

" All these ancient books, in short, and all the transla- 
tions of them, are in the condition of witnesses placed in 
a witness-box, in a court of justice ; examined and cross- 
examined by friends and enemies, and brought face to face 
with each other, so as to make it certain that any falsehood 
or mistake will be brought to light." — Easy Lessons on 
Christian Evidences, pp. 23 — 27. 



Note (K.) Pp. 146, 166. 

I will take the liberty of here inserting extracts from 
the articles " Authority" and " Church," in the Appendix 
(on Ambiguous Terms) to the Elements of Logic. 

" Authority. — This word is sometimes employed in its 
primary sense, when we refer to any one's example, testi- 
mony or judgment : as when, e. g. we speak of correcting 
a reading in some book, on the Authority of an ancient 
MS. — giving a statement of some fact, on the authority of 
such and such historians, &c. 

* c In this sense the word answers pretty nearly to the 
Latin ' Auctoritas.' 

" Sometimes again it is employed as equivalent to ' Po- 
testas,' Power : as when we speak of the Authority of a 
Magistrate, &c. 



278 Appendix. 

" Many instances may be found in which writers have 
unconsciously slid from one sense of the word to another, 
so as to blend confusedly in their minds the two ideas. In 
no case perhaps has this more frequently happened than 
when we are speaking of the Authority of the Church : 
in which the ambiguity of the latter word (see the Article 
Church) comes in aid of that of the former. The Au- 
thority (in the primary sense) of the Catholic, i. e. Uni- 
versal Church, at any particular period, is often appealed 
to, in support of this or that doctrine or practice : and it 
is, justly, supposed that the opinion of the great body of 
the Christian World affords a presumption (though only a 
presumption) in favour of the correctness of any interpre- 
tation of Scripture, or the expediency, at the time, of any 
ceremony, regulation, &c. 

" On the other hand, each particular Church has Au- 
thority in the other sense, viz. Power, over its own mem- 
bers, (as long as they choose to remain members) to en^ 
force any thing not contrary to God's Word. But the 
Catholic or Universal Church, not being one religious 
community on earth, can have no authority in the sense 
of Power ; since it is notorious there never was a time 
when the power of the Pope, of a Council, or of any 
other human Governors, over all Christians, was in fact 
admitted, or could be proved to have any just claim to be 
admitted."— Pp. 349, 350. 

" Church is sometimes employed to signify the Church, 
i. e. the Universal or Catholic Church, — comprehending in 
it all Christians ; who are ' Members one of another,' and 
who compose the body, of which Christ is the Head ; 
which, collectively taken, has no visible supreme Head or 
earthly governor, either individual, or council ; and which 
is one, only in reference to its One invisible Governor and 
Paraclete, the Spirit of Christ, dwelling in it, — to the one 
common faith, and character, which ought to be found in 
all Christians, — and the common principles on which all 
Christian societies should be constituted. See Hinds's 
History of the Rise of Christianity. 



Appendix. 279 

•• Sometimes again it is employed to signify a Church ; 
i. €. any one Society, constituted on these general princi- 
ples ; having governors on earth, and existing as a com- 
munity possessing a certain power over its own members ; 
in which sense we read of the ' Seven Churches in Asia ;' 
— of Paul's having ■ the care of all the Churches,' &c." — 
P. 353. 

The two senses of the word " Authority" are in most 
cases so easily and completely distinguished, even by per- 
sons of no more than ordinary accuracy in the use of 
language, that many would be disposed, at the first glance, 
to wonder how any confusion ever could arise from the 
ambiguity. Men receive, for instance, on the " authority" 
of certain experienced Physicians the description of the 
symptoms of the Plague or some other disease, and their 
method of treating it ; and on the " authority" of As- 
tronomers, statements and theories relative to the hea- 
venly bodies. So also, it is on the authority of the ancient 
Romans, — not of the Roman State, but the Roman Pub- 
lic, — that we acknowledge the works of Cicero and Horace 
and other classical authors. In all these and innumerable 
similar cases, no such idea as coercive power or claim of 
submission as a matter of obligation, is ever suggested to 
the mind by the word " authority." But it often happens 
that the judgment is even much more influenced by au- 
thority in this sense, than it would have been by a formal 
decree of some regularly constituted Body. For instance, 
if any one happened to have conversed on some subject 
with all, or nearly all, the individual members of the 
House of Commons separately and independently, and 
had found them all to concur in respect of some fact or 
opinion, this concurrence, though destitute of all legal 
force, would doubtless have more weight with his judg- 
ment than a regular vote of the House, if carried by a 
bare majority, in a House consisting, perhaps, of not one- 
fifth of the whole number of members, and perhaps op- 
posed by the most judicious and best informed of them, 
24 



280 Appendix. 

And even so, if the Roman senate, or some regularly con- 
stituted academy at Rome, had formally pronounced on the 
genuineness of the iEneid, our conviction would not cer- 
tainly have been stronger, and would most likely have 
been much weaker, than now that it is based on the in- 
dependent, spontaneous, and undisputed belief of all who 
took an interest in the subject. 

The authority on which we rest our conviction of the 
genuineness of the New Testament Scriptures, is of the 
same kind, though incomparably stronger in degree. For 
it is not to the Roman world in its widest acceptation, but 
to the literary portion of it, that we appeal, in respect of 
any volume of the Classics. On the contrary, the Chris- 
tian Scriptures were addressed to all classes ; (the doc- 
trine of what is called " Reserve" — of putting the light 
of the Gospel under a bushel — being no part of the Apos- 
tolic system) so that probably for one reader of Cicero or 
Livy there were more than fifty persons, — even in a very 
early period of the Church, — anxious to possess copies of 
the New Testament Scriptures, and careful, in proportion 
to the high importance of the subject, as to the genuine- 
ness and accuracy of what they read. On this point I 
will take the liberty of citing the words of an eminent 
writer from an unpublished discourse, delivered a good 

many years ago at Oxford, in a course of lectures 

" Nothing is more remarkable in Christianity than the 
care and anxiety with which the early Christians examined 
the pretensions of any writing to be received as the work 
of an Apostle. This will also account for the interval of 
time which elapsed before all the books of the Canon be- 
came generally received. It does not indeed appear that 
the genuineness of any of the four Gospels was ever 
doubted ; but the Epistles being addressed to particular 
Churches, and at various times, it must have required for 
one of these some interval before its communication could 
take place throughout every country in which the Gospel 
was preached, accompanied by such evidence as should be 



Appendix. 281 

satisfactory to every other Church As soon as can 

be supposed possible the Christians of all countries re- 
markably agreed in receiving them as canonical ; while 
the hesitation of a few proves only that this agreement 
was not a hasty or careless assent, but a deliberate and 

unbiassed judgment It cannot be too strongly 

pressed upon your attention that the credit of a canon 
thus composed is infinitely greater than if it had rested 
on the authority of some general Council. For the deci- 
sion of a Council is the decision of a majority only ; 
whereas this is ratified by the voice of every separate 
church. It is moreover the decision not of one meeting, 
or of one age, but the uncontradicted belief of all the first 
churches, spreading gradually and naturally as the Gospel 
spread : — a belief which was not imposed by authority, 
but was the result of their own cautious and independent 
examination." 

I have dwelt thus fully on this subject because I believe 
there are not a few who being accustomed to hear the 
authority of the primitive church spoken of as that on 
which we receive the New Testament Scriptures, are 
led to fancy it the authority of some one society acting col- 
lectively, and in its corporate capacity : and thus they lose 
sight of the very circumstance on which the chief force 
of this testimony depends ; namely, that there was no de- 
cree or decision of any one Society, but — what has far 
more weight — the concurring, independent convictions of 
a great number of distinct Churches in various regions of 
the world. 



Note (L.) P. 165. 

" We are often too much disposed, perhaps, not indeed 
to lay it down, but tacitly to assume, that those who sat 
at the feet of Apostles must be secure from error. It is 



282 Appendix. 

more probable that they would hold substantial truth not 
unmixed with subordinate deviations from it. It was so 
even during the life-time of the Apostles, and why not af- 
ter their decease? If indeed the good providence of God 
had not directed the Apostles themselves to bequeath to 
the Church their own instructions in writing, and we had 
to gather them only from the writings of their successors, 
then it might have been hoped that such very important 
witnesses, as the Apostolical Fathers would have thus be- 
come, would have been secured from every mistake, from 
every error at least which could seriously mislead us. 
But as it is, there was no more need of a perpetual miracle 
to give such an immunity from error to the immediate 
successors of the Apostles than to us. Moreover, we 
have an unhappy advantage over them, in that we know 
by sad experience the fatal consequences which by de- 
grees resulted from even slight deviations from the lan- 
guage and sentiments of Inspiration ; such as a sacrificial 
character gradually ascribed to the Eucharist, or an im- 
proper exaltation of the Christian ministry, or praise allot- 
ted upon unscriptural grounds to celibacy or asceticism. 
If Antiquity, quo propius aberat ab ortu et divina progenie, 
hoc melius ea fortasse, quae erant vera, cernebat, she may 
have been for that very reason, knowing what was true, 
and meaning what was right, the less suspicious of the 
effect of slight deviations from the exact truth of Holy 
Scripture. We may lament, indeed, but we cannot be 
surprised, that uninspired men, holding the truth substan- 
tially both as to doctrine and discipline, should slide 
into error here and there in tone, or sentiment, or subordi- 
nate opinion. Doubtless their errors should be our warn- 
ing. Only let us be careful to detect the seeds of error 
even in the writings of good and holy men in primitive 
times, not in order to censure them, but to secure our- 
selves ; to counteract our natural tendency to confound 
the uninspired with the inspired, and to make us doubly 
grateful thai God has blessed His Church with the un- 



Appendix. 288 

erring records, written by inspired Apostles, of Gospel 
truth." — Hawkins's Sermon on the Ministry of Men, pp. 
41, 42. 



Note (M.) P. 172. 

" 'But are we then,' (all Romanists and some Protes- 
tants would ask) * to be perpetually wavering and hesita- 
ting in our faith 1 — never satisfied of our own orthodoxy ? — 
always supposing or suspecting that there is something 
unscriptural in our Creed or in our worship 1 ? We could 
but be in this condition, if Christ had not promised to be 
with his Church, " always, even to the end of the world ;" 
— had not declared by his Apostle* that his " Spirit help- 
eth our infirmities ;." had not taught us to expect that 
where we are "gathered together in his Name, there is 
He in the midst of us." Are we to explain away all that 
Scripture says of spiritual help and guidance 1 Or are 
we to look for a certain partial and limited help ; — that the 
Holy Spirit will secure us from some errors, but lead us, 
or leave us, to fall into others!" 

" Such is the statement* the most plausible I can give 
in a small compass, of the Romish (but not exclusively 
Romish) argument, which goes to leave no medium be- 
tween a claim to infallibility on the one hand, and univer- 
sal hesitation, — absolute Scepticism, on the other. An ap- 
peal to the common sense which every one, Romanist or 
Protestant, exercises on all but religious subjects, might 
be sufficient to prove, from the practice of those very men 
who use such reasoning, not only its absurdity, but their 
own conviction of its absurdity. In all matters which do 
not admit of absolute demonstration, all men except a few 
of extravagant self-conceit, are accustomed to regard them- 
selves or those under whose guidance they act, as fallible ; 
24* 



284 Appendix. 

and yet act, on many occasions, — after they have taken 
due pains to understand the subject, to ascertain their own 
competency, and to investigate the particular case before 
them, — without any distressing hesitation. There are 
questions in Medicine, in Agriculture, in Navigation, &c. 
which sensible men, well versed in their respective arts, 
would decide with sufficient confidence for all practical 
purposes : yet without holding themselves to be infallible, 
but on the contrary always keeping themselves open to 
conviction, — always on the watch against error, — attentive 
to the lessons which observation furnishes, — ready to stand 
corrected if any argument shall be adduced (however 
little they may anticipate this) which will convict them of 
mistake. 

"'Yes,' (it may be replied) '-all this holds good in 
worldly matters; but in the far more important case of 
religious concerns, God has graciously promised us spirit- 
ual assistance, to "lead us into all truth." 

u It is most true that He has. Christ has declared, ' If 
any man keep my saying, my Father will love him, and 
we will come unto him, and make our abode with him :* — 
' without Me ye can do nothing :-' for '-if any man have 
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his ;■' and 'as 
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of 
God.' 

" But some distinction there must be, between the spi- 
ritual guidance granted to the Apostles, which was accom- 
panied by sensible miracles, and all that has ever been be- 
stowed, since the cessation of miracles. I do not mean a 
difference as to the evidence for the existence of each ; for 
both are equally to be believed, if we have faith in the di- 
vine promises : but there must be a difference in the cha- 
racter of the divine assistance in the two cases, arising out 
of the presence, in the one, and the absence, in the other, 
of sensibly-miraculous attestation. And this difference 
evidently is, that, in the one case, the divine agency is, in 
each individual instance, known; in the ether, unknown^ 



Appendix. 286 

If an Apostle adopted any measure, or formed a decision 
on any doctrine, in consequence of a perceptible admonition 
from Heaven, he knew that he was, in this point, infallibly 
right. A sincere Christian, in the present day, may be no 
less truly guided by the same Spirit to adopt a right mea- 
sure, or form a correct decision ; but he never can know 
this with certainty, before the day of judgment. It is not 
that spiritual aid is now withdrawn, but that it is imper- 
ceptible; as indeed its ordinary sanctifying influence always 
was. It is to be known only by its fruits ; of which we 
must judge by a diligent and candid examination of Scrip- 
ture, and a careful, humble, self-distrusting exercise of our. 
own fallible judgment. 

"It is conceivable, therefore, that an individual or a 
Church, may be, in fact, free from error ; but none can 
ever be (either at the present moment, or in future) secure 
from error. We are not bound to believe, or to suspect, 
that any of the- doctrines we hold,, are erroneous ; but we 
are bound never to feel such a confidence in their correct- 
ness, as to shut the door against objection, and to dispense 
with a perpetual and vigilant examination. Even the fullest 
conviction that a complete perfection in soundness of doc- 
trine is attainable, has in it nothing of arrogance, — nothing 
of a presumptuous claim, to infallibility, as long as we stea- 
dily keep in view^ that even one who should have attained 
this, never can, in this life, be certain of it. We are taught, 
I think, in Scripture, to expect that the pious and diligent 
student will be assisted by the divine guidance ;, and that 
in proportion as. he is humble,, patient, sincere, and watch- 
fully on his guard against that unseen current of passions 
and prejudices which is ever tending to drive him out of 
the right course, — in the same degree will he succeed in 
attaining all necessary religious truths. But how far he 
has exercised these virtues, or how far he may have been 
deceiving himself, he never can be certain, till the great 
day of account. In the mean time, he must act on his con- 
victions,, as if he were certain of their being correct ; he 



286 Appendix. 

must examine and re-examine the grounds of them as if he 
suspected them of being erroneous. 

" In this it is that great part of our trial in the present 
life consists : and it is precisely analogous to what takes 
place in the greater part of temporal concerns. The skil- 
ful and cautious navigator keeps his reckoning with care, 
but yet never so far trusts to that as rfot to * keep a look- 
out,' as it is termed, and to take 'an observation,' when 
opportunity offers. There is no risk incurred, from his 
strongly hoping that his computations will prove correct ; 
provided he never resigns himself to such an indolent reli- 
ance on them as to neglect any opportunity of verifying 
them. The belief, again, whether true or false, that it is 
possible for a time-keeper to go with perfect exactness, 
can never mislead any one who is careful to make allow- 
ance for the possibility of error in his own, and to com- 
pare it, whenever he has opportunity, with the Dial which 
receives the light from heaven." — Essay on Omissions^ pp. 
43—49. 



Note (N.) Pp. 199. 

"It has been said that the Pope, the Bishops, the Priests, 
and those who dwell in convents, form the spiritual, or 
ecclesiastical State ; and that the princes, nobles, citizens, 
and peasants, form the secular state or laity. This is a fine 
story, truly. Let no one, however, be alarmed at it. All 
Christians belong to the spiritual State ; and there is no 
other difference between them than that of the functions 
they discharge. * * * 

* * If any pious laymen were banished to a desert, 

and having no regularly-consecrated priest among them, 
were to agree to choose for that office one of their number, 
married or unmarried, this man would be as truly a priest 
as if he had been consecrated by all the bishops in the 
world. Augustine, Ambrose, and Cyprian, were chosen in 



Appendix. 287 

this manner. Hence it follows that laity and priests, 
princes and bishops, or, as they say, the Clergy and the 
Laity, have, in reality, nothing to distinguish them, but 
their functions. They all belong to the same Estate ; but 
all have not the same work to perform," &c. — Lulh. Opp* 
1. xvii. f. 457, et seq. 

It may be needful to add, that if in a Church thus con- 
stituted, or in any other, the Laity are admitted to a share 
in the government of it, and to ecclesiastical offices, this 
would be, not only allowable, but wise and right. That 
laymen, — that is, those who hold no spiritual office — should 
take part in legislating for the Church, and should hold 
ecclesiastical offices, as in the Scotch Kirk, and in the 
American Episcopalian Church, (always supposing, how- 
ever, that they are Members of the Church ; not, as in 
this Country, belonging to other Communions) is far better 
than that the whole government should be in the hands of 
men of one Profession, the clerical. 

That this has nothing of an Erastian character, it would 
be unnecessary to mention, but that I have seen the obser- 
vation — in itself perfectly true — made in such a manner as 
to imply what is not true ; i. e. so as to imply that some 
persons do, or may, maintain that there is something of 
Erastianism in such an arrangement. But who ever heard 
of any such charge being brought 1 Who, for instance, 
ever taxed the Scotch Kirk, or the American-Episcopalian, 
with being Erastian, on account of their having Lay-El- 
ders 1 Erastianism has always been considered as con- 
sisting in making the Slate as such, — the Civil Magistrate 
by virtue of his office*, — prescribe to the People what they 
shall believe, and how worship God. 



Note (O.) P. 229.. 
With respect to the first question (in reference to lay- 



288 Appendix. 

baptism) it is plain that, according to the above principles, 
a Church has a right to admit, or refuse to admit, Members. 
This right it possesses as a Society: as a. Christian Society, 
sanctioned by our Heavenly Master, it has a right to ad- 
minister his Sacraments ; and it has a right to decide who 
shall or shall not exercise certain functions, and under what 
circumstances. If it permit Laymen (that is, those who 
are excluded from other spiritual functions) to baptize, it 
does, by that permission, constitute them its functionaries, 
in respect of that particular point. And this it has a right 
to do, or to refuse to do. If a Church refuse to recognise 
as valid any baptism not administered by such and such 
officers, then the pretended administration of it by any one 
else, is of course null and void, as wanting that sanction of 
a Christian Church which alone can confer validity. 

With respect to the second question, it does appear to 
me extremely unadvisable, — derogatory to the dignity of 
the ordinance, — and tending both to superstition and to 
profaneness, that the admission, through a divinely-insti- 
tuted Rite, of members into the Society, should be in any 
case entrusted to persons not expressly chosen and so- 
lemnly appointed to any office in that Society. 

Nearly similar reasoning will apply, I think, to the case 
of Ordinations. What appears to me the wisest course, 
would be that each Church should require a distinct ap- 
pointment by that Church itself, to any ministerial office to 
be exercised therein ; whether the person so appointed had 
been formerly ordained or not, to any such office in another 
Church. But the form of this appointment need not be 
such as to cast any stigma on a former Ordination, by im- 
plying that the person in question had not been a real and 
regular minister of another distinct Society. For any 
Church has a fair right to demand that (unless reason be 
shown to the contrary) its acts should be regarded as valid 
within the pale of that Church itself : but no Church can 
reasonably claim a right to ordain ministers for another 
Church. 



Appendix. 289 

As for the remaining question, — What is the actual de- 
termination as to this point, — this is of course a distinct 
question in reference to each Church. 

On this point it is only necessary to remark how import- 
ant it is, with a view to good order and peace, that some 
determination should be made, and should be clearly set 
forth, by any Church, as to this and other like practical 
questions ; and that they should not be left in such a 
state of uncertainty as to furnish occasion for disputes and 
scruples. 13 Many points of doctrine, indeed, that may 
fairly be regarded as non-essential, it may be both allowa- 
ble and wise for a Church to leave at large, and pronounce 
no decision on them ; allowing each Minister, if he thinks 
fit, to put forth his own exposition, as the result of his own 
judgment, and not as a decision of the Church. But it is 
not so, in matters even intrinsically indifferent, where 
Church-discipline is concerned. A Minister ought to be 
as seldom as possible left in the predicament of not knowing 
what he ought to do in a case that comes before him. And 
though it is too much to expect from a Church composed 
of fallible men that its decisions on every point should be 
such as to obtain universal approbation as the very best, 
it is but fair to require that it should at least give deci- 
sions, according to the best judgment of its Legislators, on 
points which, in each particular case that arises, must be 
decided on one way or another. 

That so many points of this character should in our own 
Church be left in a doubtful state, is one out of the many 
evils resulting from the want of a Legislative Government 
for the Church : which for more than a century has had 
none, c except the Civil Legislature ; a Body as unwilling, 
as it is unfitted, to exercise any such functions. Such 
certainly was not the state of things designed or contem- 
plated by our Reformers ; and I cannot well understand 

b See " Appeal on behalf of Church-government." 
c See " Case of Occasional Days and Prayers," by John John- 
son, A. M., Vicar of Cranbrook, in the Diocese of Canterbury. 



2&0 Appendix. 

the consistency of those who are perpetually eulogizing 
the Reformers, their principles and proceedings, and yet so 
completely run counter to them in a most fundamental 
point, as to endeavour to prevent, or not endeavour to pro- 
mote, the establishment of a Church government ; which 
no one can doubt they at least regarded as a thing essential 
to the well-being, if not to the permanent existence, of a 
Church. d 

I have never heard any thing worth notice urged on the 
opposite side, except the apprehension that such a Church- 
government as would be probably appointed would be like- 
ly to be objectionable ;^-would probably be a bad one. I 
have no doubt of this; if by "bad" be meant, faulty. In 
this sense, I am convinced that no government, civil or ec- 
clesiastical, ever existed, or will exist, that is not " bad." 
All governments being formed and administered by fallible 
men, it would be absurd to look for any that shall be ex- 
empt from errors, both in design and execution. 6 But the 
important question^ and that which alone is really to the 
present purpose, is, whether it is likely a Government 
should be established that is worse than the absence of 
government. 

As for the specific objections entertained against a 
Church government, I believe the particular evils most 
commonly apprehended from the establishment of one, are 
these two : the conferring of an excessive power on the 
Clergy, who, it is hastily assumed, are to be sole Govern- 
ors of the Church ; and the predominance, in any Assem- 
bly to which the supreme power might be entrusted, of 
some one of the exclusive and violent parties existing in 
the Church ; who would accordingly, it is concluded, es* 
tablish and enforce such regulations as would drive out of 
its Communion a large portion of its members. 

d See " Speech on presenting a Petition from the Diocese of Kil- 
dare, with Appendix," reprinted in a volume of Charges and othet 
Tracts. 

* ** Erunt vitia, donee homines." 



Appendix. 291 

The former of the above objections will disappear, I 
think, on a very moderate degree of reflection. The idea 
that all ecclesiastical government must of course be vested 
in the Clergy, arises, partly perhaps, from the common 
error of using the terms " Church" and " Clergy" as 
synonymous, partly, from men's recollecting that the Con- 
vocation (of which the shadow still remains) consisted of 
Clergy, and forgetting that it had not the government of 
the Church solely, but conjointly with the King and the 
Parliament ; — that Parliament consisted of members in- 
deed, but not of ministers of the Church ; and that the 
Prayer-book does not rest on the sole authority of Convo- 
cation, but is part and parcel of an Act of Parliament. 
And whether we look to the actual condition of our own 
Church, in which the appointment to all the Bishoprics, 
and to most of the Parishes, is in lay-hands, or to the off- 
shoot of our Church in the United States, which is govern- 
ed partly by lay-members, we cannot consider it as any 
thing unprecedented that the Laity should have a share in 
Ecclesiastical government. 

In truth, nothing can be more unlikely than that either 
the Clergy should think of excluding the Laity, or the 
Laity, themselves, from all voice in ecclesiastical regula- 
tions. 

The other apprehension, — that of a complete preponde- 
rance of some extreme party, — arises, I conceive, from not 
taking into account the influence which, in every Assem- 
bly and every Society, is always exercised, — except in 
some few cases of very extraordinary excitement, and 
almost of temporary disorganization, — by those who are 
in a minority. It might appear at first sight — and such is 
usually the expectation of a child of ordinary intelligence, 
and of all those who are deficient in an intelligent study 
of history, or observation of what is passing in the world, 
— that whatever Party might in any Meeting or in any 
Community, obtain a majority, or in whatever other way, a 
superiority, would be certain to carry out their own prin- 
25 



292 Appendix. 

ciples to the utmost, with a total disregard of all the rest ; 
so that in a Senate for instance, consisting, suppose, of 100 
members, a majority, whether of 51 or 49, or of 70 to 40, 
or of 95 to 5, would proceed in all respects as if the others 
had no existence : and that no mutual concessions or com- 
promises could take place except between parties exactly 
balanced. In like manner a person wholly ignorant of 
Mechanics might suppose that a body acted on by several 
unequal forces in different directions would obey altogether 
the strongest, and would move in the direction of that ; in- 
stead of moving, as we know it does, in the diagonal, — in 
a direction approaching nearer to that of the strongest 
force ; but not coinciding with it. 

And experience shows that in human affairs as well as 
in Mechanics, such expectations are not well-founded. If 
no tolerable wise and good measures were ever carried 
except in an Assembly where there was a complete pre- 
dominance of men sufficiently enlightened and public- 
spirited to have a decided preference for those measures 
above all others, the world would, I conceive, be much 
worse governed than it really is. 

No doubt, the larger the proportion of judicious and 
patriotic individuals, the better for the Community ; but it 
seems to be the appointment of Providence that the preju- 
dices, and passions, and interests of different men should 
be so various as not only to keep one another somewhat in 
check, but often to bring about, or greatly help to bring 
about, mixed results, often far preferable to any thing de- 
vised or aimed at by any of the parties. 

The British Constitution, for instance, no intelligent 
reader of history would regard as wholly or chiefly the 
work of men fully sensible of the advantages of a govern- 
ment so mixed and balanced. It was in great measure the 
result of the efforts, partially neutralizing each other, of 
men who leaned, some of them towards pure Monarchy, 
and others towards Republicanism. And again, though no 
one can doubt how great an advance (it is as yet only an 



Appendix. 293 

advance) in the principles of religious toleration, and of 
making a final appeal to Scripture alone, is due to the Re- 
formation, yet the Reformers were slow in embracing these 
principles. They were at first nearly as much disposed 
as their opponents to force their own interpretations of 
Scripture on every one, and to call in the Magistrate to 
suppress heresy by force. But not being able to agree 
among themselves whose interpretation of Scripture should 
be received as authoritative, and who should be entrusted 
with the Sword that was to extirpate heresy, compromises 
and mutual concessions gradually led more and more to 
the practical adoption of principles whose theoretical truth 
and justice is, even yet, not universally perceived. 

And similar instances may be found in every part of 
History. Without entering into a detailed examination 
of the particular mode in which, on each occasion, a 
superior party is influenced by those opposed to them, — 
either from reluctance to drive them to desperation, or 
otherwise, — certain it is, that, looking only to the results, — 
the practical working of any Government, — in the long 
run and in the general course of its measures, — we do 
find something corresponding to the composition of forces 
in Mechanics ; and we find oftener than not, that the 
course actually pursued is better (however faulty) than 
could have been calculated from the character of the 
greater part of those who administer the Government. 
The wisest and most moderate, even when they form but 
a small minority, are often enabled amidst the conflict of 
those in opposite extremes, to bring about decisions, less 
wise and just indeed than they themselves would have 
desired, but far better than those of either of the extreme 
parties. 

The above views are the more important, because any 
one who does not embrace them, will be likely, on con- 
templating any wise institution or enactment of former 
times, to be thrown into indolent despondency, if he find, 
as he often will, that the majority of those around us do 



294 Appendix. 

not seem to come up to the Standard which those institu- 
tions and enactments appear to him to imply. He takes 
for granted that the whole or the chief part of the mem- 
bers of those Assemblies, &c, in which such and such 
measures were carried, must have been men of a corres- 
ponding degree of good sense, and moderation, and public 
spirit : and perceiving as he thinks that an Assembly of 
such men could not now be found, he concludes that wis- 
dom and goodness (in Governments at least) must have 
died with our ancestors ; or at least that no good is at pre- 
sent to be hoped from any Government. And yet perhaps 
the truth will be that the greater part of the very Assem- 
blies whose measures he is admiring may have consisted 
of men of several parties, each of which would, if left 
entirely to itself have made a much worse decision than 
the one actually adopted ; and that one may have been 
such, as, though not actually to coincide with, yet most 
nearly to approach to the opinions of the wisest and best 
members of the Assembly, though those may have been 
but a small minority. And it may be therefore, that he 
may have around him the materials of an Assembly not at 
all inferior in probity or intelligence to that which he is 
contemplating with despairing admiration. 

To apply what has been said to the case now before us ; 
it does seem to me that in a Church Government estab- 
lished on any tolerably fair and natural principles, though 
we must calculate on such imperfections as must attend 
every thing wherein imperfect man is concerned, there 
would be no reason to apprehend more imperfections than 
the best civil Government is liable to, (which every one 
admits to be on the whole a most important benefit) or 
than are to be found in the Ecclesiastical Government of 
the American Episcopalians ; which though administered 
by fallible mortals like ourselves, is found, on the whole, 
to work very satisfactorily. 

To expect that any extreme party would exercise such 
uncontrolled sway as materially to corrupt or subvert the 
Church, would be against all experience- 



Appendix. 295 

Suppose for instance that the principal legislative power 
of some Church were lodged in some Body of men the 
majority of whom werh attached, more or less, to two or 
more Parties, entertaining extreme views : one, suppose, 
leaning a good deal towards the system of the Greek and 
Romish Churches, another towards that of the Puritans, 
&c. It would argue I think great ignorance of the lessons 
of History to conclude that one or other of these Parties 
must carry out their own views in the most unmitigated 
excess, and that the only question would be, which of the 
Parties would succeed in completely crushing the other, 
and would thenceforward domineer over, and rigidly coerce, 
or expel, all other Members of the Church. The conclu- 
sion warranted by analogy would, I think, be, that the 
opposite extremes would temper and partially neutralize 
each other ; — that the moderate and judicious portion of 
the Assembly, and who were themselves the most exempt 
from party-bias, would persuade the least immoderate of 
each party to make some concessions for the sake of peace, 
and to forego some of the most unreasonable of their re- 
quisitions ; — that these mediators, by supporting what was 
right, and opposing what was wrong, in each party (for 
almost every party has something of each) would go a 
good way towards ultimately rejecting the worst part, and 
retaining the best part, of each proposal ; — and that the 
final result would be, that many points would be left at 
large, which would have most probably been determined 
in an objectionable way by either party if left wholly un- 
checked ; and that other points, (such as require to be 
determined one way or another in order to avoid future 
dissension) would be determined on wiser and better prin- 
ciples than the greater part of the Assembly would, in the 
first instance, have adopted ; while an opening would re- 
main for continual progress in the removal of such defects, 
and the adoption of such improvements, as experience and 
reflection might point out. 

Another consideration which ought not to be lost sight 



296 Appendix. 

of, is, that for any evils which might be produced through 
the fault of Legislators, those Legislators would be re- 
sponsible : while for the evils (not, which may arise, but 
which are actually existing, notorious, and grievous,) 
caused by the want of a Legislature, every Prelate, every 
Minister, and every Member of the Church is responsible 
who has it in his power to do any thing — much or little — 
towards the remedy of that want, and neglects to do his 
utmost. 



Note (P.) P. 238. 

It might be added that, among those who express the 
greatest dread and detestation of " German Neology," — 
" German Philosophy," — the " daring speculations of the 
Germans," &c, are to be found some of that class of 
Anglican Divines, whose doctrines apparently correspond 
the most closely (as far as we can judge respecting two 
confessedly mystic schools) with those of that very 
Neology. The very circumstance itself that both are 
schools of Mysticism, — that both parties have one system 
for the mass of mankind, and another — whether expressed 
in different language or in the same words understood in 
a totally different sense — for the initiated, affords a pre- 
sumption, when there are some points of coincidence in 
the doctrine divulged, that a still further agreement may 
be expected in the reserved doctrines. 

As the advocates of reserve among us speak of not in- 
tending to inculcate generally such conclusions as a logi- 
cal reasoner will correctly deduce by following out their 
principles, and again speak of an ordinary reader being 
likely to " miss their real meaning, by not being aware of 
the peculiar sense in which they employ terms," so those 
German Transcendentalists whom I allude to,: — whose 
system of Theology — or rather of Atheology — is little 



Appendix. 297 

else than a new edition of the Pantheism of the ancient 
Heathen Philosophers, of the Brahmins, and the Budd- 
hists, — use a similar double-meaning language. They 
profess Christianity, and employ profusely such terms as 
a "God," "Faith," "Incarnation," "Miracle," "Immor- 
tality," &c, attaching to these words, a meaning quite 
remote from what is commonly understood by them. 
Their " God" is the God of Pantheism ; not a personal 
agent, but a certain vital principal diffused through the 
Material Universe, and of which every human soul is a 
portion ; which is at death to be reabsorbed into the in- 
finite Spirit, and become just what it was before birth/ ex- 
actly according to the ancient system of philosophy de- 
scribed by Virgil : " Mens agitat molem et toto se corpore 
miscet ; Inde hominum pecudumque genus," &c. And 
the other terms alluded to are understood by them in a 
sense no less wide from the popular acceptation. 

Both parties again agree in deprecating all employment 
of reasoning in matters pertaining to religion : both decry 
the historical evidence of Christianity, and discourage as 
profane all appeal to evidence ; and both disparage Mira- 
cles considered as a proof of the divine origin of Chris- 
tianity, alleging that every event that occurs is equally a 
miracle ; meaning therefore exactly what in ordinary lan- 
guage would be expressed by saying that nothing is mira- 
culous. 

Other coincidences may be observed ; such as the strong 
desire manifested by both parties to explain away, or soften 
down, the line of demarcation between what ordinary 
Christians call the Scriptures, and every thing subse- 
quent ; — between what we call the Christian Revelation, 
considered as an historical transaction recorded in the New 
Testament ; and any pretended after-revelation, or im- 
provement, or completion or perfect development, of "the 
system of true Religion." To Christianity as a Revelation 

f See Essay 1st, First Series. 



298 Appendix. 

completed in our sacred books, both parties, more or less 
openly, according to circumstances, confess their objection. 

And it is remarkable that even the vehement censures 
pronounced by one of these schools, on the speculations of 
the other, is far from being inconsistent with their funda- 
mental agreement in principles. For of the German Neo- 
logists themselves, some of the leading writers strongly 
condemn the rashness, with which some conclusions have 
been openly stated by others of the same school, and con- 
fessedly proceeding on principles fundamentally the same. 

If any one therefore who belongs to a school of mystical 
reserve, should be suspected, in consequence of a remark- 
able agreement between some of his acknowledged tenets 
and the German Neology, of a further degree of secret 
concurrence, beyond, perhaps, what he is really conscious 
of, he must not wonder at, or complain of such suspicion ; 
nor expect at once to repel it by the strongest censure of 
those writers, and professed renunciation of their doctrines ; 
unless he can also make up his mind to renounce likewise 
the system of a " Double doctrine" altogether, resolving, 
and proclaiming his resolution to speak henceforth " the 
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," respect- 
ing his religious tenets, and forswearing totally the prac- 
tice of employing language " in a peculiar sense" different 
from what is ordinarily understood by it. 



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